Me Imperturbe

Walt Whitman

   ME imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature,
   Master of all, or mistress of all--aplomb in the midst of irrational
         things,
   Imbued as they--passive, receptive, silent as they,
   Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less
         important than I thought;
   Me private, or public, or menial, or solitary--all these subordinate,
         (I am eternally equal with the best--I am not subordinate;)
   Me toward the Mexican Sea, or in the Mannahatta, or the Tennessee, or
         far north, or inland,
   A river man, or a man of the woods, or of any farm-life in These
         States, or of the coast, or the lakes, or Kanada,
   Me, wherever my life is lived, O to be
         self-balanced for
         contingencies!
   O to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as
         the trees and animals do.

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