among the multitude

Among the Multitude

Among the men and women the multitude

I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs,

Acknowledging none else, not parent, wife, husband, brother, child,

any nearer than I am,

Some are baffled, but that one is not - that one knows me.

Ah lover and perfect equal,

I meant that you should discover me so by faint indirections,

And when I meet you mean to discover you by the like in you.

           - Walt Whitman (1819-1892)