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Respondez!

RESPONDEZ! Respondez!
Let every one answer! let those who sleep be waked!
        let none evade!
(How much longer must we go on with our affectations
        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, thieves, 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 trillions of 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 contra–
        dict 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!
Let the theory of America be management, caste,
        comparison! (Say! what other theory would
        you?)
Let them that distrust birth and death lead the rest!
        (Say! why shall they not lead you?)
Let the crust of hell be near’d 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 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 ap–
        plause 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, gov–
        ernments, 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 per–
        sons!
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
        stingfish—Let these,
        and the like of these, be put on a perfect equal–
        ity 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 obscenely
        of women! and let women among themselves
        talk and think obscenely of men!
Let every man doubt every woman! and let every
        woman trick every man!
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 be permitted to exist upon the
        earth!
Let the earth desert God, nor let there never hence–
        forth be mention’d the name of God!
Let there be no God!
Let there be money, business, imports, exports, cus–
        tom, 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 Ameri–
        can, 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 derided 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 rest 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 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 teach only
        what they have been taught!
Let insanity 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 con–
        sumptive and genteel persons!
Let the white person 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 continue
        unstudied!
Let a man seek pleasure everywhere except in him–
        self! Let a woman seek happiness everywhere
        except in herself! (What real happiness have
        you had one single time through your whole
        life?)
Let the limited years of life do nothing for the limit–
        less years of death! (What do you suppose
        death will do, then?)
Other works by Walt Whitman...



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