' I have satisfaction '...

Pleasantly and well-suited I walk: Whither I walk I cannot define, but I know it is good;
The whole universe indicates that it is good,
The past and the present indicate that it is good.

How beautiful and perfect are the animals! How perfect is my Soul! How perfect the earth, and the minutest thing upon it!
What is called good is perfect, and what is called bad is just as perfect,
The vegetables and minerals are all perfect, and the imponderable fluids are perfect;
Slowly and surely they have passed on to this, and slowly and surely they yet pass on.

My Soul! if I realize you, I have satisfaction;
Animals and vegetables! if I realize you, I have satisfaction;
Laws of the earth and air! if I realize you, I have satisfaction.

I cannot define my satisfaction, yet it is so;
I cannot define my life, yet it is so. It comes to me now!

I swear I think now that everything without exception has an eternal soul!

The trees have, rooted in the ground! the weeds of the sea have! the animals!

I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!

That the exquisite scheme is for it, and the nebulous float is for it, and the cohering is for it;
And all preparation is for it! and identity is for it! and life and death are altogether for it!



- Walt Whitman