O joy! O to have life henceforth a poem of new joys!
Drink day and night the joys of life.

O the joy of increase, growth, recuperation,
The joy of soothing and pacifying, the joy of concord and harmony,
All you venerable and innocent joys,
The utterance of hope and floods of anticipation, 
All enfolded in joy, joy, joy, which underlies and overtops the whole effusion! 

 O the great patient rugged joys,  
The exhaustless animal joy, which our Creator would pour upon us from all living and moving things, 
Joys of the life befitting me and brothers mine. 
I believe in the jolly all-round time, (with the parsons and the police eliminated,) 
Riotous laughing bacchanals fill’d with joy, 
The wildest and most exuberant joy.

O the joy of my spirit—it is uncaged,
The ecstasy is upon me, joy in the ecstasy of life,
I just abandon myself to the mood, and let it float on,
Wandering amazed at my own lightness and high glee,
My spirit springs and grows elastic,
I rise ecstatic through all, and sweep with the true gravitation,
Ecstasy everywhere touching and thrilling me.

Now my spirit burns volcanic, it darts like lightning, 
The whirling and whirling is elemental within me, 
Drunk with joy and high exhilaration! 
The rapture in being, and in the physical existence of things, is vehement, beyond example, 
Something wild and untamed, the torrents of my soul’s strong joys,  
Copious as stars and glad as morning light! 
Joys worthy thee O soul, joys all thine own, undying one. 

O the sunshine of a joyous heart!
Each moment and whatever happens thrills me with joy,
Joy, sweet joy, through many a year,
Joys, ceaseless exercises, exaltations.
Henceforth I will go celebrate anything I see or am,
See, dance, clap hands, exult, shout, skip, leap, roll on, float on,
And sing and laugh with storm or sun, and deny nothing!

I stand for the joyful conclusions,
Joyousness, out of sure ultimate happiness and triumph, rings throughout, giving full satisfaction,
In freedom, worship, love! joy!
The ocean fill’d with joy, the atmosphere all joy!
Joy! joy! all over joy!
The joyous, electric All—a perfect world, all joy!

NEXT:  CONTENTED ACCEPTANCE

The texts in this anthology should NOT be cited as direct quotations from Whitman. If you want to quote from this site for something you are writing or posting, please read this first (click here).