1. ۱1
2. ۲AS I sat alone, by blue Ontario’s shore,
3. ۳As I mused of these mighty days, and of peace return’d, and the dead that return no
4. ۴ more,
5. ۵A Phantom, gigantic, superb, with stern visage, accosted me;
6. ۶Chant me the poem, it said, that comes from the soul of America—chant me
7. ۷ the
8. ۸ carol of victory;
9. ۹And strike up the marches of Libertad—marches more powerful yet;
10. ۱۰And sing me before you go, the song of the throes of Democracy.
11. ۱۱
12. ۱۲(Democracy—the destin’d conqueror—yet treacherous lip-smiles everywhere,
13. ۱۳And Death and infidelity at every step.)
14. ۱۴
15. ۱۵2
16. ۱۶A Nation announcing itself,
17. ۱۷I myself make the only growth by which I can be appreciated,
18. ۱۸I reject none, accept all, then reproduce all in my own forms.
19. ۱۹
20. ۲۰A breed whose proof is in time and deeds;
21. ۲۱What we are, we are—nativity is answer enough to objections;
22. ۲۲We wield ourselves as a weapon is wielded,
23. ۲۳We are powerful and tremendous in ourselves,
24. ۲۴We are executive in ourselves—We are sufficient in the variety of ourselves,
25. ۲۵We are the most beautiful to ourselves, and in ourselves;
26. ۲۶We stand self-pois’d in the middle, branching thence over the world;
27. ۲۷From Missouri, Nebraska, or Kansas, laughing attacks to scorn.
28. ۲۸
29. ۲۹Nothing is sinful to us outside of ourselves,
30. ۳۰Whatever appears, whatever does not appear, we are beautiful or sinful in ourselves only.
31. ۳۱
32. ۳۲(O mother! O sisters dear!
33. ۳۳If we are lost, no victor else has destroy’d us;
34. ۳۴It is by ourselves we go down to eternal night.)
35. ۳۵
36. ۳۶3
37. ۳۷Have you thought there could be but a single Supreme?
38. ۳۸There can be any number of Supremes—One does not countervail another, any more than
39. ۳۹ one
40. ۴۰ eyesight countervails another, or one life countervails another.
41. ۴۱
42. ۴۲All is eligible to all,
43. ۴۳All is for individuals—All is for you,
44. ۴۴No condition is prohibited—not God’s, or any.
45. ۴۵
46. ۴۶All comes by the body—only health puts you rapport with the universe.
47. ۴۷
48. ۴۸Produce great persons, the rest follows.
49. ۴۹
50. ۵۰4
51. ۵۱America isolated I sing;
52. ۵۲I say that works made here in the spirit of other lands, are so much poison in The States.
53. ۵۳
54. ۵۴
55. ۵۵(How dare such insects as we see assume to write poems for America?
56. ۵۶For our victorious armies, and the offspring following the armies?)
57. ۵۷
58. ۵۸Piety and conformity to them that like!
59. ۵۹Peace, obesity, allegiance, to them that like!
60. ۶۰I am he who tauntingly compels men, women, nations,
61. ۶۱Crying, Leap from your seats, and contend for your lives!
62. ۶۲
63. ۶۳I am he who walks the States with a barb’d tongue, questioning every one I meet;
64. ۶۴Who are you, that wanted only to be told what you knew before?
65. ۶۵Who are you, that wanted only a book to join you in your nonsense?
66. ۶۶
67. ۶۷(With pangs and cries, as thine own, O bearer of many children!
68. ۶۸These clamors wild, to a race of pride I give.)
69. ۶۹
70. ۷۰O lands! would you be freer than all that has ever been before?
71. ۷۱If you would be freer than all that has been before, come listen to me.
72. ۷۲
73. ۷۳Fear grace—Fear elegance, civilization, delicatesse,
74. ۷۴Fear the mellow sweet, the sucking of honey-juice;
75. ۷۵Beware the advancing mortal ripening of nature,
76. ۷۶Beware what precedes the decay of the ruggedness of states and men.
77. ۷۷
78. ۷۸Ages, precedents, have long been accumulating undirected materials,
79. ۷۹America brings builders, and brings its own styles.
80. ۸۰
81. ۸۱The immortal poets of Asia and Europe have done their work, and pass’d to other
82. ۸۲ spheres,
83. ۸۳A work remains, the work of surpassing all they have done.
84. ۸۴
85. ۸۵America, curious toward foreign characters, stands by its own at all hazards,
86. ۸۶Stands removed, spacious, composite, sound—initiates the true use of precedents,
87. ۸۷Does not repel them, or the past, or what they have produced under their forms,
88. ۸۸Takes the lesson with calmness, perceives the corpse slowly borne from the house,
89. ۸۹Perceives that it waits a little while in the door—that it was fittest for its days,
90. ۹۰That its life has descended to the stalwart and well-shaped heir who approaches,
91. ۹۱And that he shall be fittest for his days.
92. ۹۲
93. ۹۳Any period, one nation must lead,
94. ۹۴One land must be the promise and reliance of the future.
95. ۹۵
96. ۹۶These States are the amplest poem,
97. ۹۷Here is not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of nations,
98. ۹۸Here the doings of men correspond with the broadcast doings of the day and night,
99. ۹۹Here is what moves in magnificent masses, careless of particulars,
100. ۱۰۰Here are the roughs, beards, friendliness, combativeness, the Soul loves,
101. ۱۰۱Here the flowing trains—here the crowds, equality, diversity, the Soul loves.
102. ۱۰۲
103. ۱۰۳6
104. ۱۰۴Land of lands, and bards to corroborate!
105. ۱۰۵Of them, standing among them, one lifts to the light his west-bred face,
106. ۱۰۶To him the hereditary countenance bequeath’d, both mother’s and father’s,
107. ۱۰۷His first parts substances, earth, water, animals, trees,
108. ۱۰۸Built of the common stock, having room for far and near,
109. ۱۰۹Used to dispense with other lands, incarnating this land,
110. ۱۱۰Attracting it Body and Soul to himself, hanging on its neck with incomparable love,
111. ۱۱۱Plunging his seminal muscle into its merits and demerits,
112. ۱۱۲Making its cities, beginnings, events, diversities, wars, vocal in him,
113. ۱۱۳Making its rivers, lakes, bays, embouchure in him,
114. ۱۱۴Mississippi with yearly freshets and changing chutes—Columbia, Niagara, Hudson,
115. ۱۱۵ spending
116. ۱۱۶ themselves lovingly in him,
117. ۱۱۷If the Atlantic coast stretch, or the Pacific coast stretch, he stretching with them north
118. ۱۱۸ or
119. ۱۱۹ south,
120. ۱۲۰Spanning between them, east and west, and touching whatever is between them,
121. ۱۲۱Growths growing from him to offset the growth of pine, cedar, hemlock, live-oak, locust,
122. ۱۲۲ chestnut, hickory, cottonwood, orange, magnolia,
123. ۱۲۳Tangles as tangled in him as any cane-brake or swamp,
124. ۱۲۴He likening sides and peaks of mountains, forests coated with northern transparent ice,
125. ۱۲۵Off him pasturage, sweet and natural as savanna, upland, prairie,
126. ۱۲۶Through him flights, whirls, screams, answering those of the fish-hawk, mocking-bird,
127. ۱۲۷ night-heron, and eagle;
128. ۱۲۸His spirit surrounding his country’s spirit, unclosed to good and evil,
129. ۱۲۹Surrounding the essences of real things, old times and present times,
130. ۱۳۰Surrounding just found shores, islands, tribes of red aborigines,
131. ۱۳۱Weather-beaten vessels, landings, settlements, embryo stature and muscle,
132. ۱۳۲The haughty defiance of the Year 1—war, peace, the formation of the Constitution,
133. ۱۳۳The separate States, the simple, elastic scheme, the immigrants,
134. ۱۳۴The Union, always swarming with blatherers, and always sure and impregnable,
135. ۱۳۵The unsurvey’d interior, log-houses, clearings, wild animals, hunters, trappers;
136. ۱۳۶Surrounding the multiform agriculture, mines, temperature, the gestation of new States,
137. ۱۳۷Congress convening every Twelfth-month, the members duly coming up from the uttermost
138. ۱۳۸ parts;
139. ۱۳۹Surrounding the noble character of mechanics and farmers, especially the young men,
140. ۱۴۰Responding their manners, speech, dress, friendships—the gait they have of persons
141. ۱۴۱ who
142. ۱۴۲ never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors,
143. ۱۴۳The freshness and candor of their physiognomy, the copiousness and decision of their
144. ۱۴۴ phrenology,
145. ۱۴۵The picturesque looseness of their carriage, their fierceness when wrong’d,
146. ۱۴۶The fluency of their speech, their delight in music, their curiosity, good temper, and
147. ۱۴۷ open-handedness—the whole composite make,
148. ۱۴۸The prevailing ardor and enterprise, the large amativeness,
149. ۱۴۹The perfect equality of the female with the male, the fluid movement of the population,
150. ۱۵۰The superior marine, free commerce, fisheries, whaling, gold-digging,
151. ۱۵۱Wharf-hemm’d cities, railroad and steamboat lines, intersecting all points,
152. ۱۵۲Factories, mercantile life, labor-saving machinery, the north-east, north-west,
153. ۱۵۳ south-west,
154. ۱۵۴Manhattan firemen, the Yankee swap, southern plantation life,
155. ۱۵۵Slavery—the murderous, treacherous conspiracy to raise it upon the ruins of all the
156. ۱۵۶ rest;
157. ۱۵۷On and on to the grapple with it—Assassin! then your life or ours be the
158. ۱۵۸ stake—and
159. ۱۵۹ respite no more.
160. ۱۶۰
161. ۱۶۱7
162. ۱۶۲(Lo! high toward heaven, this day,
163. ۱۶۳Libertad! from the conqueress’ field return’d,
164. ۱۶۴I mark the new aureola around your head;
165. ۱۶۵No more of soft astral, but dazzling and fierce,
166. ۱۶۶With war’s flames, and the lambent lightnings playing,
167. ۱۶۷And your port immovable where you stand;
168. ۱۶۸With still the inextinguishable glance, and the clench’d and lifted fist,
169. ۱۶۹And your foot on the neck of the menacing one, the scorner, utterly crush’d beneath
170. ۱۷۰ you;
171. ۱۷۱The menacing, arrogant one, that strode and advanced with his senseless scorn, bearing the
172. ۱۷۲ murderous knife;
173. ۱۷۳—Lo! the wide swelling one, the braggart, that would yesterday do so much!
174. ۱۷۴To-day a carrion dead and damn’d, the despised of all the earth!
175. ۱۷۵An offal rank, to the dunghill maggots spurn’d.)
176. ۱۷۶
177. ۱۷۷8
178. ۱۷۸Others take finish, but the Republic is ever constructive, and ever keeps vista;
179. ۱۷۹Others adorn the past—but you, O days of the present, I adorn you!
180. ۱۸۰O days of the future, I believe in you! I isolate myself for your sake;
181. ۱۸۱O America, because you build for mankind, I build for you!
182. ۱۸۲O well-beloved stone-cutters! I lead them who plan with decision and science,
183. ۱۸۳I lead the present with friendly hand toward the future.
184. ۱۸۴
185. ۱۸۵Bravas to all impulses sending sane children to the next age!
186. ۱۸۶But damn that which spends itself, with no thought of the stain, pains, dismay, feebleness
187. ۱۸۷ it
188. ۱۸۸ is bequeathing.
189. ۱۸۹
190. ۱۹۰9
191. ۱۹۱I listened to the Phantom by Ontario’s shore,
192. ۱۹۲I heard the voice arising, demanding bards;
193. ۱۹۳By them, all native and grand—by them alone can The States be fused into the compact
194. ۱۹۴ organism of a Nation.
195. ۱۹۵
196. ۱۹۶To hold men together by paper and seal, or by compulsion, is no account;
197. ۱۹۷That only holds men together which aggregates all in a living principle, as the hold of
198. ۱۹۸ the
199. ۱۹۹ limbs of the body, or the fibres of plants.
200. ۲۰۰
201. ۲۰۱Of all races and eras, These States, with veins full of poetical stuff, most need poets,
202. ۲۰۲ and
203. ۲۰۳ are to have the greatest, and use them the greatest;
204. ۲۰۴Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall.
205. ۲۰۵
206. ۲۰۶(Soul of love, and tongue of fire!
207. ۲۰۷Eye to pierce the deepest deeps, and sweep the world!
208. ۲۰۸—Ah, mother! prolific and full in all besides—yet how long barren, barren?)
209. ۲۰۹
210. ۲۱۰10
211. ۲۱۱Of These States, the poet is the equable man,
212. ۲۱۲Not in him, but off from him, things are grotesque, eccentric, fail of their full returns,
213. ۲۱۳
214. ۲۱۴Nothing out of its place is good, nothing in its place is bad,
215. ۲۱۵He bestows on every object or quality its fit proportion, neither more nor less,
216. ۲۱۶He is the arbiter of the diverse, he is the key,
217. ۲۱۷He is the equalizer of his age and land,
218. ۲۱۸He supplies what wants supplying—he checks what wants checking,
219. ۲۱۹In peace, out of him speaks the spirit of peace, large, rich, thrifty, building populous
220. ۲۲۰ towns,
221. ۲۲۱ encouraging agriculture, arts, commerce, lighting the study of man, the Soul, health,
222. ۲۲۲ immortality, government;
223. ۲۲۳In war, he is the best backer of the war—he fetches artillery as good as the
224. ۲۲۴ engineer’s—he can make every word he speaks draw blood;
225. ۲۲۵The years straying toward infidelity, he withholds by his steady faith,
226. ۲۲۶He is no argurer, he is judgment—(Nature accepts him absolutely;)
227. ۲۲۷He judges not as the judge judges, but as the sun falling round a helpless thing;
228. ۲۲۸As he sees the farthest, he has the most faith,
229. ۲۲۹His thoughts are the hymns of the praise of things,
230. ۲۳۰In the dispute on God and eternity he is silent,
231. ۲۳۱He sees eternity less like a play with a prologue and denouement,
232. ۲۳۲He sees eternity in men and women—he does not see men and women as dreams or dots.
233. ۲۳۳
234. ۲۳۴For the great Idea, the idea of perfect and free individuals,
235. ۲۳۵For that idea the bard walks in advance, leader of leaders,
236. ۲۳۶The attitude of him cheers up slaves and horrifies foreign despots.
237. ۲۳۷
238. ۲۳۸Without extinction is Liberty! without retrograde is Equality!
239. ۲۳۹They live in the feelings of young men, and the best women;
240. ۲۴۰Not for nothing have the indomitable heads of the earth been always ready to fall for
241. ۲۴۱ Liberty.
242. ۲۴۲
243. ۲۴۳11
244. ۲۴۴For the great Idea!
245. ۲۴۵That, O my brethren—that is the mission of Poets.
246. ۲۴۶
247. ۲۴۷Songs of stern defiance, ever ready,
248. ۲۴۸Songs of the rapid arming, and the march,
249. ۲۴۹The flag of peace quick-folded, and instead, the flag we know,
250. ۲۵۰Warlike flag of the great Idea.
251. ۲۵۱
252. ۲۵۲(Angry cloth I saw there leaping!
253. ۲۵۳I stand again in leaden rain, your flapping folds saluting;
254. ۲۵۴I sing you over all, flying, beckoning through the fight—O the hard-contested fight!
255. ۲۵۵O the cannons ope their rosy-flashing muzzles! the hurtled balls scream!
256. ۲۵۶
257. ۲۵۷The battle-front forms amid the smoke—the volleys pour incessant from the line;
258. ۲۵۸Hark! the ringing word, Charge!—now the tussle, and the furious maddening
259. ۲۵۹ yells;
260. ۲۶۰Now the corpses tumble curl’d upon the ground,
261. ۲۶۱Cold, cold in death, for precious life of you,
262. ۲۶۲Angry cloth I saw there leaping.)
263. ۲۶۳
264. ۲۶۴12
265. ۲۶۵Are you he who would assume a place to teach, or be a poet here in The States?
266. ۲۶۶The place is august—the terms obdurate.
267. ۲۶۷
268. ۲۶۸Who would assume to teach here, may well prepare himself, body and mind,
269. ۲۶۹He may well survey, ponder, arm, fortify, harden, make lithe, himself,
270. ۲۷۰He shall surely be question’d beforehand by me with many and stern questions.
271. ۲۷۱
272. ۲۷۲Who are you, indeed, who would talk or sing to America?
273. ۲۷۳Have you studied out the land, its idioms and men?
274. ۲۷۴Have you learn’d the physiology, phrenology, politics, geography, pride, freedom,
275. ۲۷۵ friendship, of the land? its substratums and objects?
276. ۲۷۶Have you consider’d the organic compact of the first day of the first year of
277. ۲۷۷ Independence, sign’d by the Commissioners, ratified by The States, and read by
278. ۲۷۸ Washington
279. ۲۷۹ at the head of the army?
280. ۲۸۰Have you possess’d yourself of the Federal Constitution?
281. ۲۸۱Do you see who have left all feudal processes and poems behind them, and assumed the poems
282. ۲۸۲ and
283. ۲۸۳ processes of Democracy?
284. ۲۸۴Are you faithful to things? do you teach as the land and sea, the bodies of men,
285. ۲۸۵ womanhood,
286. ۲۸۶ amativeness, angers, teach?
287. ۲۸۷Have you sped through fleeting customs, popularities?
288. ۲۸۸Can you hold your hand against all seductions, follies, whirls, fierce contentions? are
289. ۲۸۹ you
290. ۲۹۰ very strong? are you really of the whole people?
291. ۲۹۱Are you not of some coterie? some school or mere religion?
292. ۲۹۲Are you done with reviews and criticisms of life? animating now to life itself?
293. ۲۹۳Have you vivified yourself from the maternity of These States?
294. ۲۹۴Have you too the old, ever-fresh forbearance and impartiality?
295. ۲۹۵Do you hold the like love for those hardening to maturity; for the last-born? little and
296. ۲۹۶ big?
297. ۲۹۷ and for the errant?
298. ۲۹۸
299. ۲۹۹What is this you bring my America?
300. ۳۰۰Is it uniform with my country?
301. ۳۰۱Is it not something that has been better told or done before?
302. ۳۰۲Have you not imported this, or the spirit of it, in some ship?
303. ۳۰۳Is it not a mere tale? a rhyme? a prettiness? is the good old cause in it?
304. ۳۰۴Has it not dangled long at the heels of the poets, politicians, literats, of enemies’
305. ۳۰۵ lands?
306. ۳۰۶Does it not assume that what is notoriously gone is still here?
307. ۳۰۷Does it answer universal needs? will it improve manners?
308. ۳۰۸Does it sound, with trumpet-voice, the proud victory of the Union, in that secession war?
309. ۳۰۹Can your performance face the open fields and the seaside?
310. ۳۱۰Will it absorb into me as I absorb food, air—to appear again in my strength, gait,
311. ۳۱۱ face?
312. ۳۱۲Have real employments contributed to it? original makers—not mere amanuenses?
313. ۳۱۳Does it meet modern discoveries, calibers, facts face to face?
314. ۳۱۴What does it mean to me? to American persons, progresses, cities? Chicago, Kanada,
315. ۳۱۵ Arkansas?
316. ۳۱۶ the planter, Yankee, Georgian, native, immigrant, sailors, squatters, old States, new
317. ۳۱۷ States?
318. ۳۱۸Does it encompass all The States, and the unexceptional rights of all the men and women of
319. ۳۱۹ the
320. ۳۲۰ earth? (the genital impulse of These States;)
321. ۳۲۱Does it see behind the apparent custodians, the real custodians, standing, menacing,
322. ۳۲۲ silent—the mechanics, Manhattanese, western men, southerners, significant alike in
323. ۳۲۳ their
324. ۳۲۴ apathy, and in the promptness of their love?
325. ۳۲۵Does it see what finally befalls, and has always finally befallen, each temporizer,
326. ۳۲۶ patcher,
327. ۳۲۷ outsider, partialist, alarmist, infidel, who has ever ask’d anything of America?
328. ۳۲۸What mocking and scornful negligence?
329. ۳۲۹The track strew’d with the dust of skeletons;
330. ۳۳۰By the roadside others disdainfully toss’d.
331. ۳۳۱
332. ۳۳۲13
333. ۳۳۳Rhymes and rhymers pass away—poems distill’d from foreign poems pass away,
334. ۳۳۴The swarms of reflectors and the polite pass, and leave ashes;
335. ۳۳۵Admirers, importers, obedient persons, make but the soul of literature;
336. ۳۳۶America justifies itself, give it time—no disguise can deceive it, or conceal from
337. ۳۳۷ it—it is impassive enough,
338. ۳۳۸Only toward the likes of itself will it advance to meet them,
339. ۳۳۹If its poets appear, it will in due time advance to meet them—there is no fear of
340. ۳۴۰ mistake,
341. ۳۴۱
342. ۳۴۲(The proof of a poet shall be sternly deferr’d, till his country absorbs him as
343. ۳۴۳ affectionately as he has absorb’d it.)
344. ۳۴۴
345. ۳۴۵He masters whose spirit masters—he tastes sweetest who results sweetest in the long
346. ۳۴۶ run;
347. ۳۴۷The blood of the brawn beloved of time is unconstraint;
348. ۳۴۸In the need of poems, philosophy, politics, manners, engineering, an appropriate native
349. ۳۴۹ grand-opera, shipcraft, any craft, he or she is greatest who contributes the greatest
350. ۳۵۰ original
351. ۳۵۱ practical example.
352. ۳۵۲
353. ۳۵۳Already a nonchalant breed, silently emerging, appears on the streets,
354. ۳۵۴People’s lips salute only doers, lovers, satisfiers, positive knowers;
355. ۳۵۵There will shortly be no more priests—I say their work is done,
356. ۳۵۶Death is without emergencies here, but life is perpetual emergencies here,
357. ۳۵۷Are your body, days, manners, superb? after death you shall be superb;
358. ۳۵۸Justice, health, self-esteem, clear the way with irresistible power;
359. ۳۵۹How dare you place anything before a man?
360. ۳۶۰
361. ۳۶۱14
362. ۳۶۲Fall behind me, States!
363. ۳۶۳A man before all—myself, typical before all.
364. ۳۶۴
365. ۳۶۵Give me the pay I have served for!
366. ۳۶۶Give me to sing the song of the great Idea! take all the rest;
367. ۳۶۷I have loved the earth, sun, animals—I have despised riches,
368. ۳۶۸I have given alms to every one that ask’d, stood up for the stupid and crazy, devoted
369. ۳۶۹ my
370. ۳۷۰ income and labor to others,
371. ۳۷۱I have hated tyrants, argued not concerning God, had patience and indulgence toward the
372. ۳۷۲ people,
373. ۳۷۳ taken off my hat to nothing known or unknown,
374. ۳۷۴I have gone freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the
375. ۳۷۵ mothers
376. ۳۷۶ of families,
377. ۳۷۷I have read these leaves to myself in the open air—I have tried them by trees, stars,
378. ۳۷۸ rivers,
379. ۳۷۹I have dismiss’d whatever insulted my own Soul or defiled my Body,
380. ۳۸۰I have claim’d nothing to myself which I have not carefully claim’d for others
381. ۳۸۱ on the
382. ۳۸۲ same terms,
383. ۳۸۳I have sped to the camps, and comrades found and accepted from every State;
384. ۳۸۴(In war of you, as well as peace, my suit is good, America—sadly I boast;
385. ۳۸۵Upon this ... has many a dying soldier lean’d, to breathe his last;
386. ۳۸۶This arm, this hand, this voice, have nourish’d, rais’d, restored,
387. ۳۸۷To life recalling many a prostrate form:)
388. ۳۸۸—I am willing to wait to be understood by the growth of the taste of myself,
389. ۳۸۹I reject none, I permit all.
390. ۳۹۰
391. ۳۹۱(Say, O mother! have I not to your thought been faithful?
392. ۳۹۲Have I not, through life, kept you and yours before me?)
393. ۳۹۳
394. ۳۹۴15
395. ۳۹۵I swear I begin to see the meaning of these things!
396. ۳۹۶It is not the earth, it is not America, who is so great,
397. ۳۹۷It is I who am great, or to be great—it is you up there, or any one;
398. ۳۹۸It is to walk rapidly through civilizations, governments, theories,
399. ۳۹۹Through poems, pageants, shows, to form great individuals.
400. ۴۰۰
401. ۴۰۱Underneath all, individuals!
402. ۴۰۲I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals,
403. ۴۰۳The American compact is altogether with individuals,
404. ۴۰۴The only government is that which makes minute of individuals,
405. ۴۰۵The whole theory of the universe is directed to one single individual—namely, to You.
406. ۴۰۶
407. ۴۰۷
408. ۴۰۸(Mother! with subtle sense severe—with the ... sword in your hand,
409. ۴۰۹I saw you at last refuse to treat but directly with individuals.)
410. ۴۱۰
411. ۴۱۱16
412. ۴۱۲Underneath all, nativity,
413. ۴۱۳I swear I will stand by my own nativity—pious or impious, so be it;
414. ۴۱۴I swear I am charm’d with nothing except nativity,
415. ۴۱۵Men, women, cities, nations, are only beautiful from nativity.
416. ۴۱۶
417. ۴۱۷Underneath all is the need of the expression of love for men and women,
418. ۴۱۸I swear I have seen enough of mean and impotent modes of expressing love for men and
419. ۴۱۹ women,
420. ۴۲۰After this day I take my own modes of expressing love for men and women.
421. ۴۲۱
422. ۴۲۲I swear I will have each quality of my race in myself,
423. ۴۲۳(Talk as you like, he only suits These States whose manners favor the audacity and sublime
424. ۴۲۴ turbulence of The States.)
425. ۴۲۵
426. ۴۲۶Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownerships, I swear I
427. ۴۲۷ perceive
428. ۴۲۸ other lessons,
429. ۴۲۹Underneath all, to me is myself—to you, yourself—(the same monotonous old song.)
430. ۴۳۰
431. ۴۳۱
432. ۴۳۲17
433. ۴۳۳O I see now, flashing, that this America is only you and me,
434. ۴۳۴Its power, weapons, testimony, are you and me,
435. ۴۳۵Its crimes, lies, thefts, defections, slavery, are you and me,
436. ۴۳۶Its Congress is you and me—the officers, capitols, armies, ships, are you and me,
437. ۴۳۷Its endless gestations of new States are you and me,
438. ۴۳۸The war—that war so bloody and grim—the war I will henceforth forget—was
439. ۴۳۹ you and
440. ۴۴۰ me,
441. ۴۴۱Natural and artificial are you and me,
442. ۴۴۲Freedom, language, poems, employments, are you and me,
443. ۴۴۳Past, present, future, are you and me.
444. ۴۴۴
445. ۴۴۵18
446. ۴۴۶I swear I dare not shirk any part of myself,
447. ۴۴۷Not any part of America, good or bad,
448. ۴۴۸Not the promulgation of Liberty—not to cheer up slaves and horrify foreign despots,
449. ۴۴۹Not to build for that which builds for mankind,
450. ۴۵۰Not to balance ranks, complexions, creeds, and the sexes,
451. ۴۵۱Not to justify science, nor the march of equality,
452. ۴۵۲Nor to feed the arrogant blood of the brawn beloved of time.
453. ۴۵۳
454. ۴۵۴I swear I am for those that have never been master’d!
455. ۴۵۵For men and women whose tempers have never been master’d,
456. ۴۵۶For those whom laws, theories, conventions, can never master.
457. ۴۵۷
458. ۴۵۸I swear I am for those who walk abreast with the whole earth!
459. ۴۵۹Who inaugurate one, to inaugurate all.
460. ۴۶۰
461. ۴۶۱I swear I will not be outfaced by irrational things!
462. ۴۶۲I will penetrate what it is in them that is sarcastic upon me!
463. ۴۶۳I will make cities and civilizations defer to me!
464. ۴۶۴This is what I have learnt from America—it is the amount—and it I teach again.
465. ۴۶۵
466. ۴۶۶(Democracy! while weapons were everywhere aim’d at your ...,
467. ۴۶۷I saw you serenely give birth to immortal children—saw in dreams your dilating form;
468. ۴۶۸Saw you with spreading mantle covering the world.)
469. ۴۶۹
470. ۴۷۰19
471. ۴۷۱I will confront these shows of the day and night!
472. ۴۷۲I will know if I am to be less than they!
473. ۴۷۳I will see if I am not as majestic as they!
474. ۴۷۴I will see if I am not as subtle and real as they!
475. ۴۷۵I will see if I am to be less generous than they!
476. ۴۷۶I will see if I have no meaning, while the houses and ships have meaning!
477. ۴۷۷I will see if the fishes and birds are to be enough for themselves, and I am not to be
478. ۴۷۸ enough
479. ۴۷۹ for myself.
480. ۴۸۰
481. ۴۸۱20
482. ۴۸۲I match my spirit against yours, you orbs, growths, mountains, brutes,
483. ۴۸۳Copious as you are, I absorb you all in myself, and become the master myself.
484. ۴۸۴
485. ۴۸۵America isolated, yet embodying all, what is it finally except myself?
486. ۴۸۶These States—what are they except myself?
487. ۴۸۷
488. ۴۸۸I know now why the earth is gross, tantalizing, wicked—it is for my sake,
489. ۴۸۹I take you to be mine, you beautiful, terrible, rude forms.
490. ۴۹۰
491. ۴۹۱(Mother! bend down, bend close to me your face!
492. ۴۹۲I know not what these plots and wars, and deferments are for;
493. ۴۹۳I know not fruition’s success—but I know that through war and peace your work
494. ۴۹۴ goes
495. ۴۹۵ on, and must yet go on.)
496. ۴۹۶
497. ۴۹۷21
498. ۴۹۸.... Thus, by blue Ontario’s shore,
499. ۴۹۹While the winds fann’d me, and the waves came trooping toward me,
500. ۵۰۰I thrill’d with the Power’s pulsations—and the charm of my theme was upon
501. ۵۰۱ me,
502. ۵۰۲Till the tissues that held me, parted their ties upon me.
503. ۵۰۳
504. ۵۰۴And I saw the free Souls of poets;
505. ۵۰۵The loftiest bards of past ages strode before me,
506. ۵۰۶Strange, large men, long unwaked, undisclosed, were disclosed to me.
507. ۵۰۷
508. ۵۰۸22
509. ۵۰۹O my rapt verse, my call—mock me not!
510. ۵۱۰Not for the bards of the past—not to invoke them have I launch’d you forth,
511. ۵۱۱Not to call even those lofty bards here by Ontario’s shores,
512. ۵۱۲Have I sung so capricious and loud, my savage song.
513. ۵۱۳
514. ۵۱۴Bards for my own land, only, I invoke;
515. ۵۱۵(For the war, the war is over—the field is clear’d,)
516. ۵۱۶Till they strike up marches henceforth triumphant and onward,
517. ۵۱۷To cheer, O mother, your boundless, expectant soul.
518. ۵۱۸
519. ۵۱۹Bards grand as these days so grand!
520. ۵۲۰Bards of the great Idea! Bards of the peaceful inventions! (for the war, the war is over!)
521. ۵۲۱
522. ۵۲۲Yet Bards of the latent armies—a million soldiers waiting, ever-ready,
523. ۵۲۳Bards towering like hills—(no more these dots, these pigmies, these little piping
524. ۵۲۴ straws,
525. ۵۲۵ these gnats, that fill the hour, to pass for poets;)
526. ۵۲۶Bards with songs as from burning coals, or the lightning’s fork’d stripes!
527. ۵۲۷Ample Ohio’s bards—bards for California! inland bards—bards of the war;)
528. ۵۲۸(As a wheel turns on its axle, so I find my chants turning finally on the war;)
529. ۵۲۹Bards of pride! Bards tallying the ocean’s roar, and the swooping eagle’s
530. ۵۳۰ scream!
531. ۵۳۱You, by my charm, I invoke!