There Was A Child

xCfrom: Leaves of Grass (1891) x x x xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx x THERE WAS A CHILD WENT FORTH By Walt Whitman xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx There was a child went forth each day; And the first object he looked upon, that object he became; And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx x The early lilacs became part of this child, And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird, And the Third-month lambs, and the sow's pink-faint litter, and the mare's foal, and the cow's calf, And the noisy brood of the barnyard.......... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx x x ..................His own parents, He that father'd him, and she that had conceiv'd him in her womb, and birth'd him, They gave this child more of themselves than that; They gave him afterward every day.......