Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RESPONDEZ!, by WALT WHITMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RESPONDEZ!, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Respondez! Respondez! / (the war is completed - the price is paid - the title is
Last Line: Years of death! (what do you suppose death will do, then?)
Variant Title(s): Poem Of The Propositions Of Nakedness


Respondez! Respondez!
(The war is completed -- the price is paid -- the title is
settled beyond recall;)
Let every one answer! let those who sleep be waked! let none evade!
Must we still go on with our affections and sneaking?
Let me bring this to a close -- I pronounce openly for a
new distribution of roles;
Let that which stood in front go behind! and let that which
was behind advance to the front and speak;
Let murderers, bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new propositions!
Let the old propositions be postponed!
Let faces and theories be turn'd inside out! let meanings
be freely criminal, as well as results!
Let there be no suggestion above the suggestion of drudgery!
Let none be pointed toward his destination! (Say! do you
know your destination?)
Let men and women be mock'd with bodies and mock'd with Souls!
Let the love that waits in them, wait! let it die, or pass
still-born to other spheres!
Let the sympathy that waits in every man, wait! or let it
also pass, a dwarf, to other spheres!
Let contradictions prevail! let one thing contradict
another! and let one line of my poems contradict another!
Let the people sprawl with yearning, aimless hands! let
their tongues be broken! let their eyes be
discouraged! let none descend into their hearts with
the fresh lusciousness of love!
(Stifled, O days! O lands! in every public and private corruption!
Smother'd in thievery, impotence, shamelessness, mountain-high;
Brazen effrontery, scheming, rolling like ocean's waves
around and upon you, O my days! my lands!
For not even those thunderstorms, nor fiercest lightnings
of the war, have purified the atmosphere;)
-- Let the theory of America still be management, caste,
comparison! (Say! what other theory would you?)
Let them that distrust birth and death still lead the rest!
(Say! why shall they not lead you?)
Let the crust of hell be neared and trod on! let the days
be darker than the nights! let slumber bring less
slumber than waking time brings!
Let the world never appear to him or her for whom it was all made!
Let the heart of the young man still exile itself from the
heart of the old man! and let the heart of the old man
be exiled from that of the young man!
Let the sun and moon go! let scenery take the applause of
the audience! let there be apathy under the stars!
Let freedom prove no man's inalienable right! every one who
can tyrannize, let him tyrannize to his satisfaction!
Let none but infidels be countenanced!
Let the eminence of meanness, treachery, sarcasm, hate,
greed, indecency, impotence, lust, be taken for
granted above all! let writers, judges, governments,
households, religions, philosophies, take such for
granted above all!
Let the worst men beget children out of the worst women!
Let the priest still play at immortality!
Let death be inaugurated!
Let nothing remain but the ashes of teachers, artists,
moralists, lawyers, and learn'd and polite persons!
Let him who is without my poems be assassinated!
Let the cow, the horse, the camel, the garden-bee -- let
the mud-fish, the lobster, the mussel, eel, the
sting-ray, and the grunting pig-fish -- let these, and
the like of these, be put on a perfect equality with
man and woman!
Let churches accommodate serpents, vermin, and the corpses
of those who have died of the most filthy of diseases!
Let marriage slip down among fools, and be for none but fools!
Let men among themselves talk and think forever obscenely
of women! and let women among themselves talk and
think obscenely of men!
Let us all, without missing one, be exposed in public,
naked, monthly, at the peril of our lives! let our
bodies be freely handled and examined by whoever chooses!
Let nothing but copies at second hand be permitted to exist
upon the earth!
Let the earth desert God, nor let there ever henceforth be
mention'd the name of God!
Let there be no God!
Let there be money, business, imports, exports, custom,
authority, precedents, pallor, dyspepsia, smut,
ignorance, unbelief!
Let judges and criminals be transposed! let the
prison-keepers be put in prison! let those that were
prisoners take the keys! (Say! why might they not
just as well be transposed?)
Let the slaves be masters! let the masters become slaves!
Let the reformers descend from the stands where they are
forever bawling! let an idiot or insane person appear
on each of the stands!
Let the Asiatic, the African, the European, the American,
and the Australian, go armed against the murderous
stealthiness of each other! let them sleep armed! let
none believe in good will!
Let there be no unfashionable wisdom! let such be scorn'd
and berided off from the earth!
Let a floating cloud in the sky -- let a wave of the sea --
let growing mint, spinach, onions, tomatoes -- let
these be exhibited as shows, at a great price for admission!
Let all the men of These States stand aside for a few
smouchers! let the few seize on what they choose! let
the resk gawk, giggle, starve, obey!
Let shadows be furnish'd with genitals! let substances be
deprived of their genitals!
Let there be wealthy and immense cities -- but still
through any of them, not a single poet, savior, knower, lover!
Let the infidels of These States laugh all faith away!
If one man be found who has faith, let the rest set upon him!
Let them affright faith! let them destroy the power of breeding faith!
Let the she-harlots and the he-harlots be prudent! let them
dance on, while seeming lasts! (O seeming! seeming! seeming!)
Let the preachers recite creeds! let them still teach only
what they have been taught!
Let insanity still have charge of sanity!
Let books take the place of trees, animals, rivers, clouds!
Let the daub'd portraits of heroes supersede heroes!
Let the manhood of man never take steps after itself!
Let it take steps after eunuchs, and after consumptive and
genteel persons!
Let the white person again tread the black person under his
heel! (Say! which is trodden under heel, after all?)
Let the reflections of the things of the world be studied
in mirrors! let the things themselves still continue unstudied!
Let a man seek pleasure everywhere except in himself!
Let a woman seek happiness everywhere except in herself!
(What real happiness have you had one single hour through
your whole life?)
Let the limited years of life do nothing for the limitless
years of death! (What do you suppose death will do, then?)





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