| WHOEVER you are, holding me now in hand, | |
| Without one thing, all will be useless, | |
| I give you fair warning, before you attempt me further, | |
| I am not what you supposed, but far different. | |
| Who is he that would become my follower? | 5 |
| Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections? | |
| The way is suspicious—the result uncertain, perhaps destructive; | |
| You would have to give up all else—I alone would expect to be your God, sole and exclusive, | |
| Your novitiate would even then be long and exhausting, | |
| The whole past theory of your life, and all conformity to the lives around you, would have to be abandon’d; | 10 |
| Therefore release me now, before troubling yourself any further—Let go your hand from my shoulders, | |
| Put me down, and depart on your way. | |
| Or else, by stealth, in some wood, for trial, | |
| Or back of a rock, in the open air, | |
| (For in any roof’d room of a house I emerge not—nor in company, | 15 |
| And in libraries I lie as one dumb, a gawk, or unborn, or dead,) | |
| 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, | 20 |
| For I am the new husband, and I am the 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 when you go forth over land or sea; | |
| For thus, merely touching you, is enough—is best, | 25 |
| And thus, touching you, would I silently sleep and be carried eternally. | |
| But these leaves conning, you con at peril, | |
| For these leaves, and me, you will not understand, | |
| They will elude you at first, and still more afterward—I will certainly elude you, | |
| Even while you should think you had unquestionably caught me, behold! | 30 |
| Already you see I have escaped from you. | |
| For it is not for what I have put into it that I have written this book, | |
| Nor is it by reading it you will acquire it, | |
| Nor do those know me best who admire me, and vauntingly praise me, | |
| Nor will the candidates for my love, (unless at most a very few,) prove victorious, | 35 |
| Nor will my poems do good only—they will do just as much evil, perhaps more; | |
| For all is useless without that which you may guess at many times and not hit—that which I hinted at; | |
| Therefore release me, and depart on your way. |
As of Aug. 11, Apple was worth $145.87 billion, compared with Google's $143.40 billion... More likely, Apple has more solidly unseated Google as tech's No. 2 powerhouse and is now on track to one day challenge Microsoft for the crown.
