Then to me ripeness and conclusion.

4. Yet not me, after all — let none be content with me,

I myself seek a man better than I am, or a woman better than I am,

I invite defiance, and to make myself superseded,

All I have done, I would cheerfully give to be trod under foot, if it might only be the soil of superior poems.

5. I have established nothing for good,

I have but established these things, till things farther onward shall be prepared to be established,

And I am myself the preparer of things farther onward.

6. I have pressed through in my own right,

I have offered my style to every one — I have journeyed with confident step,

While my pleasure is yet at the full, I whisper So long,

And take the young woman's hand, and the young man's hand, for the last time.

7. Once more I enforce you to give play to yourself — and not depend on me, or on any one but yourself,

Once more I proclaim the whole of America for each individual, without exception.