Me, myself and I

Sure as the most certain sure....plumb in the
uprights, well entretied, braced in the beams,
Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical,
I and this mystery here we stand.

Clear and sweet is my soul....and clear and sweet is
all that is not my soul.

Lack one lacks both....and the unseen is proved by
the seen,
Til that becomes unseen and receives proof in its
turn.

Showing the best and dividing it from the worst, age
vexes age,
Knowing the perfect fitness and equanimity of things,
while they discuss I am silent, and go bathe and
admire myself.

Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of
any man hearty and clean,
Not an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, and none
shall be less familiar than the rest.

From 'Song of Myself'
By Walt Whitman

Quoted on page 94 of 'Holding Faith' by Davd Gee