em
there in such a way that he who reads must feel and imbibe them.

The recognized poets put into their pages the virtue and quality of the
fine gentleman, or of the sensitive, artistic nature: this poet of
democracy effuses the atmosphere of fresh, strong Adamic man,--man acted
upon at first hand by the shows and forces of universal nature.

If our poet ever sounds the note of the crude, the loud, the exaggerated,
he is false to himself and to his high aims. I think he may be charged
with having done so a few times, in his earlier work, but not in his
later. In the 1860 edition of his poems stands this portraiture, which may
stand for himself, with one or two features rather overdrawn:--

"His shape arises
Arrogant, masculine, naive, rowdyish,
Laugher, weeper, worker, idler, citizen, countryman,
Saunterer of woods, stander upon hills, summer swimmer in rivers or by
the sea,
Of pure American breed, of reckless health, his body perfect, free from
taint from top to toe, free forever from headache and dyspepsia,
clean-breathed,
Ample-limbed, a good feeder, weight a hundred and eighty pounds,
full-blooded, six feet high, forty inches round the breast and
back,
Countenance sunburnt, bearded, calm, unrefined,
Reminder of animals, meeter of savage and gentleman on equal terms,
Attitudes lithe and erect, costume free, neck gray and open, of slow
movement on foot,
Passer of his right arm round the shoulders of his friends, companion
of the street,
Persuader always of people to give him their sweetest touches, and never
their meanest.
A Manhattanese bred, fond of Brooklyn, fond of Broadway, fond of the
life of the wharves and the great ferries,
Enterer everywhere, welcomed everywhere, easily understood after all,
Never offering others, always offering himself, corroborating his
phrenology,
Voluptuous, inhabitive, combative, conscientious, alimentive, intuitive,
of copious friendship, sublimity, firmness, self-esteem,
comparison, individuality, form, locality, eventuality,
Avowing by life, manners, words to contribute illustrations of results
of These States,
Teacher of the unquenchable creed namely egotism,
Inviter of others continually henceforth to try their strength against
his."

XIII

Whitman was determined, at whatever risk to his own reputation, to make
the char