Whitman Illuminated: Song of Myself

The distillation would intoxicate me also,
but I shall not let it

There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.

You shall no longer take things at second or third hand,
not look through the eyes of the dead,
nor feed on the spectres in books.
You shall not look through my eyes either,
nor take things from me,
you shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself.

The distillation would intoxicate me also,
but I shall not let it