A Woman Waits for Me

4Sex contains all,

5Bodies, Souls, meanings, proofs, purities, delicacies, results, promulgations,

6Songs, commands, health, pride, the maternal mystery, the seminal milk;

7All hopes, benefactions, bestowals,

8All the passions, loves, beauties, delights of the earth,

9All the governments, judges, gods, follow’d persons of the earth,

10These are contain’d in sex, as parts of itself, and justifications of itself.

11Without shame the man I like knows and avows the deliciousness of his sex,

12Without shame the woman I like knows and avows hers.

13Now I will dismiss myself from impassive women,

14I will go stay with her who waits for me, and with those women that are warm-blooded and

15 sufficient for me;

16I see that they understand me, and do not deny me;

17I see that they are worthy of me—I will be the robust husband of those women.

18They are not one jot less than I am,

19They are tann’d in the face by shining suns and blowing winds,

20Their flesh has the old divine suppleness and strength,

21They know how to swim, row, ride, wrestle, shoot, run, strike, retreat, advance, resist,

22 defend themselves,

23They are ultimate in their own right—they are calm, clear, well-possess’d of

24 themselves.

25I draw you close to me, you women!

26I cannot let you go, I would do you good,

27I am for you, and you are for me, not only for our own sake, but for others’ sakes;

28Envelop’d in you sleep greater heroes and bards,

29They refuse to awake at the touch of any man but me.

30It is I, you women—I make my way,

31I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable—but I love you,

32I do not hurt you any more than is necessary for you,

33I pour the stuff to start sons and daughters fit for These States—I press with slow

34 rude muscle,

35I brace myself effectually—I listen to no entreaties,

36I dare not withdraw till I deposit what has so long accumulated within me.

37Through you I drain the pent-up rivers of myself,

38In you I wrap a thousand onward years,

39On you I graft the grafts of the best-beloved of me and America,

40The drops I distil upon you shall grow fierce and athletic girls, new artists, musicians,

41 and singers,

42The babes I beget upon you are to beget babes in their turn,

43I shall demand perfect men and women out of my love-spendings,

44I shall expect them to interpenetrate with others, as I and you interpenetrate now,

45I shall count on the fruits of the gushing showers of them, as I count on the fruits of

46 the gushing showers I give now,

47I shall look for loving crops from the birth, life, death, immortality, I plant so

48 lovingly now.