1
TO concludeI announce what comes after me;
I announce mightier offspring, orators, days, and then, for the present, depart.
I remember I said, before my leaves sprang at all,
I would raise my voice jocund and strong, with reference to consummations.
When America does what was promisd,
When there are plentiful athletic bards, inland and seaboard,
When through These States walk a hundred millions of superb persons,
When the rest part away for superb persons, and contribute to them,
When breeds of the most perfect mothers denote America,
Then to me and mine our due fruition.
I have pressd through in my own right,
I have sung the Body and the SoulWar and Peace have I sung,
And the songs of Life and of Birthand shown that there are many births:
I have offerd my style to everyoneI have journeyd with confident step;
While my pleasure is yet at the full, I whisper, So long!
And take the young womans hand, and the young mans hand, for the last time.
2
I announce natural persons to arise;
I announce justice triumphant;
I announce uncompromising liberty and equality;
I announce the justification of candor, and the justification of pride.
I announce that the identity of These States is a single identity only;
I announce the Union more and more compact, indissoluble;
I announce splendors and majesties to make all the previous politics of the earth
insignificant.
I announce adhesivenessI say it shall be limitless, unloosend;
I say you shall yet find the friend you were looking for.
I announce a man or woman comingperhaps you are the one, (So long!)
I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate,
fully
armed.
I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold;
I announce an end that shall lightly and joyfully meet its translation;
I announce myriads of youths, beautiful, gigantic, sweet-blooded;
I announce a race of splendid and savage old men.
3
O thicker and faster! (So long!)
O crowding too close upon me;
I foresee too muchit means more than I thought;
It appears to me I am dying.
Hasten throat, and sound your last!
Salute mesalute the days once more. Peal the old cry once more.
Screaming electric, the atmosphere using,
At random glancing, each as I notice absorbing,
Swiftly on, but a little while alighting,
Curious envelopd messages delivering,
Sparkles hot, seed ethereal, down in the dirt dropping,
Myself unknowing, my commission obeying, to question it never daring,
To ages, and ages yet, the growth of the seed leaving,
To troops out of me, out of the army, the war arisingthey the tasks I have set
promulging,
To women certain whispers of myself bequeathingtheir affection me more clearly
explaining,
To young men my problems offeringno dallier II the muscle of their brains
trying,
So I passa little time vocal, visible, contrary;
Afterward, a melodious echo, passionately bent for(death making me really undying;)
The best of me then when no longer visiblefor toward that I have been incessantly
preparing.
What is there more, that I lag and pause, and crouch extended with unshut mouth?
Is there a single final farewell?
4
My songs ceaseI abandon them;
From behind the screen where I hid I advance personally, solely to you.
Camerado! This is no book;
Who touches this, touches a man;
(Is it night? Are we here alone?)
It is I you hold, and who holds you;
I spring from the pages into your armsdecease calls me forth.
O how your fingers drowse me!
Your breath falls around me like dewyour pulse lulls the tympans of my ears;
I feel immerged from head to foot;
Deliciousenough.
Enough, O deed impromptu and secret!
Enough, O gliding present! Enough, O summd-up past!
5
Dear friend, whoever you are, take this kiss,
I give it especially to youDo not forget me;
I feel like one who has done work for the day, to retire awhile;
I receive now again of my many translationsfrom my avataras ascendingwhile
others
doubtless await me;
An unknown sphere, more real than I dreamd, more direct, darts awakening rays about
meSo long!
Remember my wordsI may again return,
I love youI depart from materials;
I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.
So Long.
written byWalt Whitman
© Walt Whitman