You Felons on Trial in Courts

Walt Whitman * Track #187 On Leaves of Grass

Download "You Felons on Trial in Courts"

Album Leaves of Grass

ALBUM

Walt Whitman

1855

You Felons on Trial in Courts by Walt Whitman

Performed by

Walt Whitman

You Felons on Trial in Courts Annotated

You felons on trial in courts,
You convicts in prison-cells, you sentenced assassins chain'd and
handcuff'd with iron,
Who am I too that I am not on trial or in prison?
Me ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chain'd with
iron, or my ankles with iron?

You prostitutes flaunting over the trottoirs or obscene in your rooms,
Who am I that I should call you more obscene than myself?

O culpable! I acknowledge—I expose!
(O admirers, praise not me—compliment not me—you make me wince,
I see what you do not—I know what you do not.)

Inside these breast-bones I lie smutch'd and choked,
Beneath this face that appears so impassive hell's tides continually run,
Lusts and wickedness are acceptable to me,
I walk with delinquents with passionate love,
I feel I am of them—I belong to those convicts and prostitutes myself,
And henceforth I will not deny them—for how can I deny myself?

Your Gateway to High-Quality MP3, FLAC and Lyrics

― DownloadMP3FLAC.com ―

Support: [email protected]