1. ۱1
2. ۲BROTHER of all, with generous hand,
3. ۳Of thee, pondering on thee, as o’er thy tomb, I and my Soul,
4. ۴A thought to launch in memory of thee,
5. ۵A burial verse for thee.
6. ۶
7. ۷What may we chant, O thou within this tomb?
8. ۸What tablets, pictures, hang for thee, O millionaire?
9. ۹—The life thou lived’st we know not,
10. ۱۰But that thou walk’dst thy years in barter, ’mid the haunts of brokers;
11. ۱۱Nor heroism thine, nor war, nor glory.
12. ۱۲
13. ۱۳Yet lingering, yearning, joining soul with thine,
14. ۱۴If not thy past we chant, we chant the future,
15. ۱۵Select, adorn the future.
16. ۱۶
17. ۱۷2
18. ۱۸Lo, Soul, the graves of heroes!
19. ۱۹The pride of lands—the gratitudes of men,
20. ۲۰The statues of the manifold famous dead, Old World and New,
21. ۲۱The kings, inventors, generals, poets, (stretch wide thy vision, Soul,)
22. ۲۲The excellent rulers of the races, great discoverers, sailors,
23. ۲۳Marble and brass select from them, with pictures, scenes,
24. ۲۴(The histories of the lands, the races, bodied there,
25. ۲۵In what they’ve built for, graced and graved,
26. ۲۶Monuments to their heroes.)
27. ۲۷
28. ۲۸3
29. ۲۹Silent, my Soul,
30. ۳۰With drooping lids, as waiting, ponder’d,
31. ۳۱Turning from all the samples, all the monuments of heroes.
32. ۳۲
33. ۳۳While through the interior vistas,
34. ۳۴Noiseless uprose, phantasmic (as, by night, Auroras of the North,)
35. ۳۵Lambent tableaux, prophetic, bodiless scenes,
36. ۳۶Spiritual projections.
37. ۳۷
38. ۳۸In one, among the city streets, a laborer’s home appear’d,
39. ۳۹After his day’s work done, cleanly, sweet-air’d, the gaslight burning,
40. ۴۰The carpet swept, and a fire in the cheerful stove.
41. ۴۱
42. ۴۲In one, the sacred parturition scene,
43. ۴۳A happy, painless mother birth’d a perfect child.
44. ۴۴
45. ۴۵In one, at a bounteous morning meal,
46. ۴۶Sat peaceful parents, with contented sons.
47. ۴۷
48. ۴۸In one, by twos and threes, young people,
49. ۴۹Hundreds concentering, walk’d the paths and streets and roads,
50. ۵۰Toward a tall-domed school.
51. ۵۱
52. ۵۲In one a trio, beautiful,
53. ۵۳Grandmother, loving daughter, loving daughter’s daughter, sat,
54. ۵۴Chatting and sewing.
55. ۵۵
56. ۵۶In one, along a suite of noble rooms,
57. ۵۷’Mid plenteous books and journals, paintings on the walls, fine statuettes,
58. ۵۸Were groups of friendly journeymen, mechanics, young and old,
59. ۵۹Reading, conversing.
60. ۶۰
61. ۶۱All, all the shows of laboring life,
62. ۶۲City and country, women’s, men’s and children’s,
63. ۶۳Their wants provided for, hued in the sun, and tinged for once with joy,
64. ۶۴Marriage, the street, the factory, farm, the house-room, lodging-room,
65. ۶۵Labor and toil, the bath, gymnasium, play-ground, library, college,
66. ۶۶The student, boy or girl, led forward to be taught;
67. ۶۷The sick cared for, the shoeless shod—the orphan father’d and mother’d,
68. ۶۸The hungry fed, the houseless housed;
69. ۶۹(The intentions perfect and divine,
70. ۷۰The workings, details, haply human.)
71. ۷۱
72. ۷۲4
73. ۷۳O thou within this tomb,
74. ۷۴From thee, such scenes—thou stintless, lavish Giver,
75. ۷۵Tallying the gifts of Earth—large as the Earth,
76. ۷۶Thy name an Earth, with mountains, fields and rivers.
77. ۷۷
78. ۷۸Nor by your streams alone, you rivers,
79. ۷۹By you, your banks, Connecticut,
80. ۸۰By you, and all your teeming life, Old Thames,
81. ۸۱By you, Potomac, laving the ground Washington trod—by you Patapsco,
82. ۸۲You, Hudson—you, endless Mississippi—not by you alone,
83. ۸۳But to the high seas launch, my thought, his memory.
84. ۸۴
85. ۸۵5
86. ۸۶Lo, Soul, by this tomb’s lambency,
87. ۸۷The darkness of the arrogant standards of the world,
88. ۸۸With all its flaunting aims, ambitions, pleasures.
89. ۸۹
90. ۹۰(Old, commonplace, and rusty saws,
91. ۹۱The rich, the ..., the supercilious, smiled at long,
92. ۹۲Now, piercing to the marrow in my bones,
93. ۹۳Fused with each drop my heart’s blood jets,
94. ۹۴Swim in ineffable meaning.)
95. ۹۵
96. ۹۶Lo, Soul, the sphere requireth, portioneth,
97. ۹۷To each his share, his measure,
98. ۹۸The moderate to the moderate, the ample to the ample.
99. ۹۹
100. ۱۰۰Lo, Soul, see’st thou not, plain as the sun,
101. ۱۰۱The only real wealth of wealth in generosity,
102. ۱۰۲The only life of life in goodness?