1. ۱1
2. ۲SINGING my days,
3. ۳Singing the great achievements of the present,
4. ۴Singing the strong, light works of engineers,
5. ۵Our modern wonders, (the antique ponderous Seven outvied,)
6. ۶In the Old World, the east, the Suez canal,
7. ۷The New by its mighty railroad spann’d,
8. ۸The seas inlaid with eloquent, gentle wires,
9. ۹I sound, to commence, the cry, with thee, O soul,
10. ۱۰The Past! the Past! the Past!
11. ۱۱
12. ۱۲The Past! the dark, unfathom’d retrospect!
13. ۱۳The teeming gulf! the sleepers and the shadows!
14. ۱۴The past! the infinite greatness of the past!
15. ۱۵For what is the present, after all, but a growth out of the past?
16. ۱۶(As a projectile, form’d, impell’d, passing a certain line, still keeps on,
17. ۱۷So the present, utterly form’d, impell’d by the past.)
18. ۱۸
19. ۱۹2
20. ۲۰Passage, O soul, to India!
21. ۲۱Eclaircise the myths Asiatic—the primitive fables.
22. ۲۲
23. ۲۳Not you alone, proud truths of the world!
24. ۲۴Nor you alone, ye facts of modern science!
25. ۲۵But myths and fables of eld—Asia’s, Africa’s fables!
26. ۲۶The far-darting beams of the spirit!—the unloos’d dreams!
27. ۲۷The deep diving bibles and legends;
28. ۲۸The daring plots of the poets—the elder religions;
29. ۲۹—O you temples fairer than lilies, pour’d over by the rising sun!
30. ۳۰O you fables, spurning the known, eluding the hold of the known, mounting to heaven!
31. ۳۱You lofty and dazzling towers, pinnacled, red as roses, burnish’d with gold!
32. ۳۲Towers of fables immortal, fashion’d from mortal dreams!
33. ۳۳You too I welcome, and fully, the same as the rest;
34. ۳۴You too with joy I sing.
35. ۳۵
36. ۳۶3
37. ۳۷Passage to India!
38. ۳۸Lo, soul! seest thou not God’s purpose from the first?
39. ۳۹The earth to be spann’d, connected by net-work,
40. ۴۰The people to become brothers and sisters,
41. ۴۱The races, neighbors, to marry and be given in marriage,
42. ۴۲The oceans to be cross’d, the distant brought near,
43. ۴۳The lands to be welded together.
44. ۴۴
45. ۴۵(A worship new, I sing;
46. ۴۶You captains, voyagers, explorers, yours!
47. ۴۷You engineers! you architects, machinists, your!
48. ۴۸You, not for trade or transportation only,
49. ۴۹But in God’s name, and for thy sake, O soul.)
50. ۵۰
51. ۵۱4
52. ۵۲Passage to India!
53. ۵۳Lo, soul, for thee, of tableaus twain,
54. ۵۴I see, in one, the Suez canal initiated, open’d,
55. ۵۵I see the procession of steamships, the Empress Eugenie’s leading the van;
56. ۵۶I mark, from on deck, the strange landscape, the pure sky, the level sand in the distance;
57. ۵۷
58. ۵۸I pass swiftly the picturesque groups, the workmen gather’d,
59. ۵۹The gigantic dredging machines.
60. ۶۰
61. ۶۱In one, again, different, (yet thine, all thine, O soul, the same,)
62. ۶۲I see over my own continent the Pacific Railroad, surmounting every barrier;
63. ۶۳I see continual trains of cars winding along the Platte, carrying freight and passengers;
64. ۶۴I hear the locomotives rushing and roaring, and the shrill steam-whistle,
65. ۶۵I hear the echoes reverberate through the grandest scenery in the world;
66. ۶۶I cross the Laramie plains—I note the rocks in grotesque shapes—the buttes;
67. ۶۷I see the plentiful larkspur and wild onions—the barren, colorless, sage-deserts;
68. ۶۸I see in glimpses afar, or towering immediately above me, the great mountains—I see
69. ۶۹ the
70. ۷۰ Wind River and the Wahsatch mountains;
71. ۷۱I see the Monument mountain and the Eagle’s Nest—I pass the Promontory—I
72. ۷۲ ascend
73. ۷۳ the Nevadas;
74. ۷۴I scan the noble Elk mountain, and wind around its base;
75. ۷۵I see the Humboldt range—I thread the valley and cross the river,
76. ۷۶I see the clear waters of Lake Tahoe—I see forests of majestic pines,
77. ۷۷Or, crossing the great desert, the alkaline plains, I behold enchanting mirages of waters
78. ۷۸ and
79. ۷۹ meadows;
80. ۸۰Marking through these, and after all, in duplicate slender lines,
81. ۸۱Bridging the three or four thousand miles of land travel,
82. ۸۲Tying the Eastern to the Western sea,
83. ۸۳The road between Europe and Asia.
84. ۸۴
85. ۸۵(Ah Genoese, thy dream! thy dream!
86. ۸۶Centuries after thou art laid in thy grave,
87. ۸۷The shore thou foundest verifies thy dream!)
88. ۸۸
89. ۸۹5
90. ۹۰Passage to India!
91. ۹۱Struggles of many a captain—tales of many a sailor dead!
92. ۹۲Over my mood, stealing and spreading they come,
93. ۹۳Like clouds and cloudlets in the unreach’d sky.
94. ۹۴
95. ۹۵Along all history, down the slopes,
96. ۹۶As a rivulet running, sinking now, and now again to the surface rising,
97. ۹۷A ceaseless thought, a varied train—Lo, soul! to thee, thy sight, they rise,
98. ۹۸The plans, the voyages again, the expeditions:
99. ۹۹Again Vasco de Gama sails forth;
100. ۱۰۰Again the knowledge gain’d, the mariner’s compass,
101. ۱۰۱Lands found, and nations born—thou born, America, (a hemisphere unborn,)
102. ۱۰۲For purpose vast, man’s long probation fill’d,
103. ۱۰۳Thou, rondure of the world, at last accomplish’d.
104. ۱۰۴
105. ۱۰۵6
106. ۱۰۶O, vast Rondure, swimming in space!
107. ۱۰۷Cover’d all over with visible power and beauty!
108. ۱۰۸Alternate light and day, and the teeming, spiritual darkness;
109. ۱۰۹Unspeakable, high processions of sun and moon, and countless stars, above;
110. ۱۱۰Below, the manifold grass and waters, animals, mountains, trees;
111. ۱۱۱With inscrutable purpose—some hidden, prophetic intention;
112. ۱۱۲Now, first, it seems, my thought begins to span thee.
113. ۱۱۳
114. ۱۱۴Down from the gardens of Asia, descending, radiating,
115. ۱۱۵Adam and Eve appear, then their myriad progeny after them,
116. ۱۱۶Wandering, yearning, curious—with restless explorations,
117. ۱۱۷With questionings, baffled, formless, feverish—with never-happy hearts,
118. ۱۱۸With that sad, incessant refrain, Wherefore, unsatisfied Soul? and Whither, O
119. ۱۱۹ mocking
120. ۱۲۰ Life?
121. ۱۲۱
122. ۱۲۲Ah, who shall soothe these feverish children?
123. ۱۲۳Who justify these restless explorations?
124. ۱۲۴Who speak the secret of impassive Earth?
125. ۱۲۵Who bind it to us? What is this separate Nature, so unnatural?
126. ۱۲۶What is this Earth, to our affections? (unloving earth, without a throb to answer ours;
127. ۱۲۷Cold earth, the place of graves.)
128. ۱۲۸
129. ۱۲۹Yet, soul, be sure the first intent remains—and shall be carried out;
130. ۱۳۰(Perhaps even now the time has arrived.)
131. ۱۳۱
132. ۱۳۲After the seas are all cross’d, (as they seem already cross’d,)
133. ۱۳۳After the great captains and engineers have accomplish’d their work,
134. ۱۳۴After the noble inventors—after the scientists, the chemist, the geologist,
135. ۱۳۵ ethnologist,
136. ۱۳۶Finally shall come the Poet, worthy that name;
137. ۱۳۷The true Son of God shall come, singing his songs.
138. ۱۳۸
139. ۱۳۹Then, not your deeds only, O voyagers, O scientists and inventors, shall be justified,
140. ۱۴۰All these hearts, as of fretted children, shall be sooth’d,
141. ۱۴۱All affection shall be fully responded to—the secret shall be told;
142. ۱۴۲All these separations and gaps shall be taken up, and hook’d and link’d
143. ۱۴۳ together;
144. ۱۴۴The whole Earth—this cold, impassive, voiceless Earth, shall be completely justified;
145. ۱۴۵
146. ۱۴۶Trinitas divine shall be gloriously accomplish’d and compacted by the the Son of God,
147. ۱۴۷ the
148. ۱۴۸ poet,
149. ۱۴۹(He shall indeed pass the straits and conquer the mountains,
150. ۱۵۰He shall double the Cape of Good Hope to some purpose;)
151. ۱۵۱Nature and Man shall be disjoin’d and diffused no more,
152. ۱۵۲The true Son of God shall absolutely fuse them.
153. ۱۵۳
154. ۱۵۴7
155. ۱۵۵Year at whose open’d, wide-flung door I sing!
156. ۱۵۶Year of the purpose accomplish’d!
157. ۱۵۷Year of the marriage of continents, climates and oceans!
158. ۱۵۸(No mere Doge of Venice now, wedding the Adriatic;)
159. ۱۵۹I see, O year, in you, the vast terraqueous globe, given, and giving all,
160. ۱۶۰Europe to Asia, Africa join’d, and they to the New World;
161. ۱۶۱The lands, geographies, dancing before you, holding a festival garland,
162. ۱۶۲As brides and bridegrooms hand in hand.
163. ۱۶۳
164. ۱۶۴8
165. ۱۶۵Passage to India!
166. ۱۶۶Cooling airs from Caucasus far, soothing cradle of man,
167. ۱۶۷The river Euphrates flowing, the past lit up again.
168. ۱۶۸
169. ۱۶۹Lo, soul, the retrospect, brought forward;
170. ۱۷۰The old, most populous, wealthiest of Earth’s lands,
171. ۱۷۱The streams of the Indus and the Ganges, and their many affluents;
172. ۱۷۲(I, my shores of America walking to-day, behold, resuming all,)
173. ۱۷۳The tale of Alexander, on his warlike marches, suddenly dying,
174. ۱۷۴On one side China, and on the other side Persia and Arabia,
175. ۱۷۵To the south the great seas, and the Bay of Bengal;
176. ۱۷۶The flowing literatures, tremendous epics, religions, castes,
177. ۱۷۷Old occult Brahma, interminably far back—the tender and junior Buddha,
178. ۱۷۸Central and southern empires, and all their belongings, possessors,
179. ۱۷۹The wars of Tamerlane, the reign of Aurungzebe,
180. ۱۸۰The traders, rulers, explorers, Moslems, Venetians, Byzantium, the Arabs, Portuguese,
181. ۱۸۱The first travelers, famous yet, Marco Polo, Batouta the Moor,
182. ۱۸۲Doubts to be solv’d, the map incognita, blanks to be fill’d,
183. ۱۸۳The foot of man unstay’d, the hands never at rest,
184. ۱۸۴Thyself, O soul, that will not brook a challenge.
185. ۱۸۵
186. ۱۸۶9
187. ۱۸۷The medieval navigators rise before me,
188. ۱۸۸The world of 1492, with its awaken’d enterprise;
189. ۱۸۹Something swelling in humanity now like the sap of the earth in spring,
190. ۱۹۰The sunset splendor of chivalry declining.
191. ۱۹۱
192. ۱۹۲And who art thou, sad shade?
193. ۱۹۳Gigantic, visionary, thyself a visionary,
194. ۱۹۴With majestic limbs, and pious, beaming eyes,
195. ۱۹۵Spreading around, with every look of thine, a golden world,
196. ۱۹۶Enhuing it with gorgeous hues.
197. ۱۹۷
198. ۱۹۸As the chief histrion,
199. ۱۹۹Down to the footlights walks, in some great scena,
200. ۲۰۰Dominating the rest, I see the Admiral himself,
201. ۲۰۱(History’s type of courage, action, faith;)
202. ۲۰۲Behold him sail from Palos, leading his little fleet;
203. ۲۰۳His voyage behold—his return—his great fame,
204. ۲۰۴His misfortunes, calumniators—behold him a prisoner, chain’d,
205. ۲۰۵Behold his dejection, poverty, death.
206. ۲۰۶
207. ۲۰۷(Curious, in time, I stand, noting the efforts of heroes;
208. ۲۰۸Is the deferment long? bitter the slander, poverty, death?
209. ۲۰۹Lies the seed unreck’d for centuries in the ground? Lo! to God’s due occasion,
210. ۲۱۰Uprising in the night, it sprouts, blooms,
211. ۲۱۱And fills the earth with use and beauty.)
212. ۲۱۲
213. ۲۱۳10
214. ۲۱۴Passage indeed, O soul, to primal thought!
215. ۲۱۵Not lands and seas alone—thy own clear freshness,
216. ۲۱۶The young maturity of brood and bloom;
217. ۲۱۷To realms of budding bibles.
218. ۲۱۸
219. ۲۱۹O soul, repressless, I with thee, and thou with me,
220. ۲۲۰Thy circumnavigation of the world begin;
221. ۲۲۱Of man, the voyage of his mind’s return,
222. ۲۲۲To reason’s early paradise,
223. ۲۲۳Back, back to wisdom’s birth, to innocent intuitions,
224. ۲۲۴Again with fair Creation.
225. ۲۲۵
226. ۲۲۶11
227. ۲۲۷O we can wait no longer!
228. ۲۲۸We too take ship, O soul!
229. ۲۲۹Joyous, we too launch out on trackless seas!
230. ۲۳۰Fearless, for unknown shores, on waves of extasy to sail,
231. ۲۳۱Amid the wafting winds, (thou pressing me to thee, I thee to me, O soul,)
232. ۲۳۲Caroling free—singing our song of God,
233. ۲۳۳Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration.
234. ۲۳۴
235. ۲۳۵With laugh, and many a kiss,
236. ۲۳۶(Let others deprecate—let others weep for sin, remorse, humiliation;)
237. ۲۳۷O soul, thou pleasest me—I thee.
238. ۲۳۸
239. ۲۳۹Ah, more than any priest, O soul, we too believe in God;
240. ۲۴۰But with the mystery of God we dare not dally.
241. ۲۴۱
242. ۲۴۲O soul, thou pleasest me—I thee;
243. ۲۴۳Sailing these seas, or on the hills, or waking in the night,
244. ۲۴۴Thoughts, silent thoughts, of Time, and Space, and Death, like waters flowing,
245. ۲۴۵Bear me, indeed, as through the regions infinite,
246. ۲۴۶Whose air I breathe, whose ripples hear—lave me all over;
247. ۲۴۷Bathe me, O God, in thee—mounting to thee,
248. ۲۴۸I and my soul to range in range of thee.
249. ۲۴۹
250. ۲۵۰O Thou transcendant!
251. ۲۵۱Nameless—the fibre and the breath!
252. ۲۵۲Light of the light—shedding forth universes—thou centre of them!
253. ۲۵۳Thou mightier centre of the true, the good, the loving!
254. ۲۵۴Thou moral, spiritual fountain! affection’s source! thou reservoir!
255. ۲۵۵(O pensive soul of me! O thirst unsatisfied! waitest not there?
256. ۲۵۶Waitest not haply for us, somewhere there, the Comrade perfect?)
257. ۲۵۷Thou pulse! thou motive of the stars, suns, systems,
258. ۲۵۸That, circling, move in order, safe, harmonious,
259. ۲۵۹Athwart the shapeless vastnesses of space!
260. ۲۶۰
261. ۲۶۱How should I think—how breathe a single breath—how speak—if, out of myself,
262. ۲۶۲I could not launch, to those, superior universes?
263. ۲۶۳
264. ۲۶۴Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of God,
265. ۲۶۵At Nature and its wonders, Time and Space and Death,
266. ۲۶۶But that I, turning, call to thee, O soul, thou actual Me,
267. ۲۶۷And lo! thou gently masterest the orbs,
268. ۲۶۸Thou matest Time, smilest content at Death,
269. ۲۶۹And fillest, swellest full, the vastnesses of Space.
270. ۲۷۰
271. ۲۷۱Greater than stars or suns,
272. ۲۷۲Bounding, O soul, thou journeyest forth;
273. ۲۷۳—What love, than thine and ours could wider amplify?
274. ۲۷۴What aspirations, wishes, outvie thine and ours, O soul?
275. ۲۷۵What dreams of the ideal? what plans of purity, perfection, strength?
276. ۲۷۶What cheerful willingness, for others’ sake, to give up all?
277. ۲۷۷For others’ sake to suffer all?
278. ۲۷۸
279. ۲۷۹Reckoning ahead, O soul, when thou, the time achiev’d,
280. ۲۸۰(The seas all cross’d, weather’d the capes, the voyage done,)
281. ۲۸۱Surrounded, copest, frontest God, yieldest, the aim attain’d,
282. ۲۸۲As, fill’d with friendship, love complete, the Elder Brother found,
283. ۲۸۳The Younger melts in fondness in his arms.
284. ۲۸۴
285. ۲۸۵12
286. ۲۸۶Passage to more than India!
287. ۲۸۷Are thy wings plumed indeed for such far flights?
288. ۲۸۸O Soul, voyagest thou indeed on voyages like these?
289. ۲۸۹Disportest thou on waters such as these?
290. ۲۹۰Soundest below the Sanscrit and the Vedas?
291. ۲۹۱Then have thy bent unleash’d.
292. ۲۹۲
293. ۲۹۳Passage to you, your shores, ye aged fierce enigmas!
294. ۲۹۴Passage to you, to mastership of you, ye strangling problems!
295. ۲۹۵You, strew’d with the wrecks of skeletons, that, living, never reach’d you.
296. ۲۹۶
297. ۲۹۷13
298. ۲۹۸Passage to more than India!
299. ۲۹۹O secret of the earth and sky!
300. ۳۰۰Of you, O waters of the sea! O winding creeks and rivers!
301. ۳۰۱Of you, O woods and fields! Of you, strong mountains of my land!
302. ۳۰۲Of you, O prairies! Of you, gray rocks!
303. ۳۰۳O morning red! O clouds! O rain and snows!
304. ۳۰۴O day and night, passage to you!
305. ۳۰۵
306. ۳۰۶O sun and moon, and all you stars! Sirius and Jupiter!
307. ۳۰۷Passage to you!
308. ۳۰۸
309. ۳۰۹Passage—immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!
310. ۳۱۰Away, O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
311. ۳۱۱Cut the hawsers—haul out—shake out every sail!
312. ۳۱۲Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
313. ۳۱۳Have we not grovell’d here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
314. ۳۱۴Have we not darken’d and dazed ourselves with books long enough?
315. ۳۱۵
316. ۳۱۶Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
317. ۳۱۷Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
318. ۳۱۸For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
319. ۳۱۹And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
320. ۳۲۰
321. ۳۲۱O my brave soul!
322. ۳۲۲O farther, farther sail!
323. ۳۲۳O daring joy, but safe! Are they not all the seas of God?
324. ۳۲۴O farther, farther, farther sail!