Song of the Answerer

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  Now list to my morning's romanza, I tell the signs of the Answerer,
  To the cities and farms I sing as they spread in the sunshine before me.

  A young man comes to me bearing a message from his brother,
  How shall the young man know the whether and when of his brother?
  Tell him to send me the signs. And I stand before the young man
      face to face, and take his right hand in my left hand and his
      left hand in my right hand,
  And I answer for his brother and for men, and I answer for him that
      answers for all, and send these signs.

  Him all wait for, him all yield up to, his word is decisive and final,
  Him they accept, in him lave, in him perceive themselves as amid light,
  Him they immerse and he immerses them.

  Beautiful women, the haughtiest nations, laws, the landscape,
      people, animals,
  The profound earth and its attributes and the unquiet ocean, (so
      tell I my morning's romanza,)
  All enjoyments and properties and money, and whatever money will buy,
  The best farms, others toiling and planting and he unavoidably reaps,
  The noblest and costliest cities, others grading and building and he
      domiciles there,
  Nothing for any one but what is for him, near and far are for him,
      the ships in the offing,
  The perpetual shows and marches on land are for him if they are for anybody.

  He puts things in their attitudes,
  He puts to-day out of himself with plasticity and love,
  He places his own times, reminiscences, parents, brothers and
      sisters, associations, employment, politics, so that the rest
      never shame them afterward, nor assume to command them.

  He is the Answerer,
  What can be answer'd he answers, and what cannot be answer'd he
      shows how it cannot be answer'd.

  A man is a summons and challenge,
  (It is vain to skulk—do you hear that mocking and laughter? do you
      hear the ironical echoes?)

  Books, friendships, philosophers, priests, action, pleasure, pride,
      beat up and down seeking to give satisfaction,
  He indicates the satisfaction, and indicates them that beat up and
      down also.

  Whichever the sex, whatever the season or place, he may go freshly
      and gently and safely by day or by night,
  He has the pass-key of hearts, to him the response of the prying of
      hands on the knobs.

  His welcome is universal, the flow of beauty is not more welcome or
      universal than he is,
  The person he favors by day or sleeps with at night is blessed.

  Every existence has its idiom, every thing has an idiom and tongue,
  He resolves all tongues into his own and bestows it upon men, and
      any man translates, and any man translates himself also,
  One part does not counteract another part, he is the joiner, he sees
      how they join.

  He says indifferently and alike How are you friend? to the President
      at his levee,
  And he says Good-day my brother, to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-field,
  And both understand him and know that his speech is right.

  He walks with perfect ease in the capitol,
  He walks among the Congress, and one Representative says to another,
      Here is our equal appearing and new.

  Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic,
  And the soldiers suppose him to be a soldier, and the sailors that
      he has follow'd the sea,
  And the authors take him for an author, and the artists for an artist,
  And the laborers perceive he could labor with them and love them,
  No matter what the work is, tha............