To Rich Givers
Leaves of Grass (1860)
What you give me, I cheerfully accept,A little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money—these as I rendezvous with my poems,A traveller's lodging and breakfast as I journeythrough The States—Why should I be ashamedto own such gifts? Why to advertise for them?For I myself am not one who bestows nothing uponman and woman,For I know that what I bestow upon any man orwoman is no less than the entrance to all thegifts of the universe.