Leaves of Grass

Good-Bye My Fancy!

  Good-bye my Fancy!
  Farewell dear mate, dear love!
  I’m going away, I know not where,
  Or to what fortune, or whether I may ever see you again,
  So Good-bye my Fancy.

  Now for my last—let me look back a moment;
  The slower fainter ticking of the clock is in me,
  Exit, nightfall, and soon the heart-thud stopping.

  Long have we lived, joy’d, caress’d together;
  Delightful!—now separation—Good-bye my Fancy.

  Yet let me not be too hasty,
  Long indeed have we lived, slept, filter’d, become really blended
      into one;
  Then if we die we die together, (yes, we’ll remain one,)
  If we go anywhere we’ll go together to meet what happens,
  May-be we’ll be better off and blither, and learn something,
  May-be it is yourself now really ushering me to the true songs, (who
      knows?)
  May-be it is you the mortal knob really undoing, turning—so now finally,
  Good-bye—and hail! my Fancy.