Uploaded on August 24, 2011
Beginning my studies the first step pleas’d me so much,
The mere fact consciousness, these forms, the power of motion,
The least insect or animal, the senses, eyesight, love,
The first step I say awed me and pleas’d me so much,
I have hardly gone and hardly wish’d to go any farther,
But stop and loiter all the time to sing it in ecstatic songs.
—Walt Whitman
The Norton Anthology of American Literature
Third Edition, Volume 1
08.24.2023: I once wrote a blog post about this poem. Edward Hirsch was a fan.