Me Imperturbe
ME imperturbe,
standing at ease in Nature,
Master
of all, or mistress of all—aplomb in the midst of irrational things,
Imbued
as they—passive, receptive, silent as they,
Finding
my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less important than I
thought;
Me
private, or public, or menial, or solitary—all these subordinate, (I am
eternally equal with the best—I am not subordinate;)
Me toward the Mexican Sea, or in the Mannahatta, or the Tennessee, or far
north, or inland,
A
river man, or a man of the woods, or of any farm-life in These States, or of
the coast, or the lakes, or Kanada,
Me,
wherever my life is lived, O to be self-balanced for
contingencies!
O
to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as the trees
and animals do
--
Walt Whitman
Submitted by Clay Splawn, Dean of Academics
" Me Imperturbe has always struck me
as a charge for self-reliance and an anthem for non-conformity. "Night,
storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs" are all things that
typically scare or shake us as human beings --- but the trees confront these
things with a nobility and a confidence that Whitman admires. "O to be
self-balanced for contingencies!" To be ready to tackle and overcome the
inevitable challenges that await us. "A plum in the midst of irrational
things" has always been my favorite line -- one needs a nice, juicy fruit
when things go unexpectedly awry.
I like other poets -- I tried on T.S. Eliot for a
while and nearly married Milton -- but Whitman has always been my scruffy
favorite.
245 North Undermountain Road 
