1
The closing lines of “Song of Myself,” which describe the imagined dif-
fusion of the dying persona into air and earth and convey his promise to
“stop somewhere waiting for you” are printed on a left-hand (verso) page
in the 1855 folio edition of Leaves of Grass. Facing them are the opening
lines of “A Song for Occupations” in which the persona appears to keep
his promise as his spirit seemingly springs forth through the “cold types”
and the “wet paper” of the poem to address his fellow citizens. As though
appearing from beyond the grave, he encourages the working people (his
presumptive audience) to acknowledge their latent dignity, and he em-
braces them as his democratic equals with an enthusiasm that borders on
sexual excitement:
Come closer to me,
Push close my lovers and take the best I possess,
Yield closer and closer and give me the best you possess.This is un¤nished business with me.... how is it with you?
I was chilled with the cold types and the cylinder and wet paper
between us.I pass so poorly with paper and types.... I must pass with the
contact of bodies and souls.That last line illustrates Emerson’s dictum that “not by literature or the-
ology, but only by rare integrity, by a man permeated and perfumed with
the airs of heaven—and with the manliest and womanliest enduring