Read "Beginners" by Walt Whitman online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
How they are provided for upon the earth, appearing at intervals; / How dear and dreadful they are to the earth; / How they inure to themselves as much as to any -- What a paradox appears their age; / How people respond to them, yet know them not; / How there is something relentless in their fate, all times; / How all times mischoose the objects of their adulation and reward, / And how the same inexorable price must still be paid for the same great purchase.