Allons! after the great Companions, and to belong to them!
They too are on the road—they are the swift and majestic men—they are the greatest women,
- Enjoyers of calms of seas and storms of seas,
- Sailors of many a ship, walkers of many a mile of land,
- Habituès of many distant countries, habituès of far-distant dwellings,
- Trusters of men and women, observers of cities, solitary toilers,
- Pausers and contemplators of tufts, blossoms, shells of the shore,
- Dancers at wedding-dances, kissers of brides, tender helpers of children, bearers of children,
- Soldiers of revolts, standers by gaping graves, lowerers-down of coffins,
Journeyers over consecutive seasons, over the years, the curious years each emerging from that which preceded it,
Journeyers as with companions, namely their own diverse phases, Forth-steppers from the latent unrealized baby-days, Journeyers gayly with their own youth, journeyers with their bearded and well-grain’d manhood, Journeyers with their womanhood, ample, unsurpass’d, content, Journeyers with their own sublime old age of manhood or womanhood,
- Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe,
- Old age, flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.