DEMOCRATIC ART 251 



The expression of the face balks account ; 



But the expression of a well-made man appears not only in his face, 



It is in his limbs and joints also, it is curiously in the joints of his hips 



and wrists ; 

 It is in his walk, the carriage of his neck, the flex of his waist and knees 



dress does not hide him ; 

 The strong, sweet, supple quality he has, strikes through the cotton and 



flannel. 



To see him pass conveys as much as the best poem, perhaps more ; 

 You linger to see his back, and the back of his neck and shoulder-side. 



Minor passages from Whitman's writings might be culled 

 in plenty which illustrate these general principles. He is 

 peculiarly rich in subjects indicated for the sculptor or the 

 painter, glowing with his own religious sense of beauty 

 inherent in the simplest folk : l 



The beauty of all adventurous and daring persons, 



The beauty of wood-boys and wood-men, with their clear, untrimmed 

 faces. 



Coming home with the silent and dark-cheeked bush-boy riding behind 

 him at the drape of the day. 



The negro holds firmly the reins of his four horses the block sways 



underneath on its tied-over chain ; 

 The negro that drives the dray of the stone-yard steady and tall he 



stands, poised on one leg on the string-piece ; 

 His blue shirt exposes his ample neck and breast, and loosens over hi 



hip-band ; 

 His glance is calm and commanding he tosses the slouch of his hat 



away from his forehead ; 

 The sun falls on his crispy hair and moustache falls on the black of his 



polished and perfect limbs. 



Detached from their context, the paragraphs which I have 

 quoted suffer from apparent crudity and paradox. It is only 

 by absorbing Whitman's poems in copious draughts, as I have 

 said, by submitting to his manner and sympathising with his 

 mood, that a conception can be formed of the wealth with 

 which he scatters plastic suggestions, and of the precision 

 with which he notes down line and colour. 



1 ' Song of the Broad Axe,' 3 ; Walt Whitman, 33 ; ibid. 13. 



