As I Lay With My Head in Your Lap, Camerado

By Walt Whitman

As I lay with my head in your lap, camerado,

The confession I made I resume — what I said to you in the open air I resume:

I know I am restless, and make others so;

I know my words are weapons, full of danger, full of death;

For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to unsettle them;

I am more resolute because all have denied me, than I could ever have been had all accepted me;

I heed not, and have never heeded either experience, cautions, majorities, or ridicule;

And the threat of what is called hell is little or nothing to me;

And the lure of what is called heaven is little or nothing to me;

Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me, and still urge you, without the least idea what is our destination,

Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quelled and defeated.