"And when I thought of how my dear friend, my lover, was on his way coming, O then I was happy

"For the one I love most lay sleeping by me under the same cover in the cool night, In the stillness, in the autumn moonbeams, his face was inclined toward me, And his arm lay lightly around my breast-and that night I was happy."

"But just possibly with you on a high hill-first watching lest any person, for miles around, approach unawares,

Or possibly with you sailing at sea, or on the beach of the sea, or some quiet island, Here to put your lips upon mine I permit you,

With the comrade's long-dwelling kiss, or the new husband's kiss,

For I am the new husband and I am the new comrade

"Or, if you will, thrusting me beneath your clothing,

Where I may feel the throbs of your heart, or rest upon your hip,

Carry me forth when you go over land or sea;

For thus, merely touching you, is enough-is best,

And thus, touching you, would I sleep and be carried eternally."

"But I record of two simple men I saw to-day, on the pier, in the midst of the crowd, parting the parting of dear friends;

The one to remain hung on the other's neck, and passionately kiss'd him, While the one to depart, tightly prest the one to remain in his arms."

"I believe the main purport of These States is to found a superb friendship, exalté, previously unknown,

Because I perceive it waits, and has been always waiting, latent in all men."

The Calamus alone, I felt, left no doubt, and such lines were scattered throughout the Leaves. Dal said I was reading things into some lines and taking others out of context. One of the above quotes, he noted, continued with a reference to the happily-married man, negating, he felt, my interpretation.

I recalled articles in recent popular psychology magazines calling the poet homo-sexual. Both my Columbia Encyclopedia and Dal's Britannica avoided any direct references. In Cory's The Homosexual in America I found support . . . "There can be no question that Whitman was a homosexual. Whether he also had bisexual inclinations is doubtful . . ." Cory relates how biographers had often suppressed the evidence of Whitman's sexual inclinations, while other critics use his homo-sexuality to add fuel to their criticism.