| I celebrate myself, and sing myself, | |
| And what I assume you shall assume, | |
| For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. | |
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| I loafe and invite my soul, | |
| I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. | 5 |
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| My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, | |
| Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their | |
| parents the same, | |
| I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, | |
| Hoping to cease not till death. | 10 |
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| Creeds and schools in abeyance, | |
| Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, | |
| I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard, | |
| Nature without check with original energy. | |