Assimilations by Walt Whitman

1. There was a child went forth every day; / And the first object he looked upon, that object he became; / And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years, or tretching cycles of years.

2. The early lilacs became part of this child, / And grass, and white and red morning-glories,[1] and white and red clover, / and the song of the phoebe-bird,[2] / And the Third-month lambs, and the sow's pink-faint litter, and the mare's / foal, and the cow's calf, / And the noisy brood of the barn-yard, or by the mire of the pond-side, / And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there -- and the / beautiful, curious liquid, / And the water-plants with their graceful fiat heads -- all became part of him. / The field-sprouts of Fourth-month and Fifth-month became part or him;