Years of the Modern.

YEARS OF THE MODERN.

YEARS of the modern! years of the unperform'd! Your horizon rises—I see it parting away for more
august dramas; I see not America only—I see not only Liberty's nation,
but other nations preparing; [ begin page 374 ]

ppp.00270.376.jpg I see tremendous entrances and exits—I see new com-
binations—I see the solidarity of races; I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the
world's stage; (Have the old forces, the old wars, played their parts?
are the acts suitable to them closed?) I see Freedom, completely arm'd, and victorious, and
very haughty, with Law on one side, and Peace
on the other, A stupendous Trio, all issuing forth against the idea of
caste; —What historic denouements are these we so rapidly
approach? I see men marching and countermarching by swift mil-
lions; I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocracies
broken; I see the landmarks of European kings removed; I see this day the People beginning their landmarks,
(all others give way;) —Never were such sharp questions ask'd as this day; Never was average man, his soul, more energetic, more
like a God; Lo! how he urges and urges, leaving the masses no
rest; His daring foot is on land and sea everywhere—he col-
onizes the Pacific, the archipelagoes; With the steam-ship, the electric telegraph, the news-
paper, the wholesale engines of war, With these, and the world-spreading factories, he inter-
links all geography, all lands; —What whispers are these, O lands, running ahead of
you, passing under the seas? Are all nations communing? is there going to be but
one heart to the globe? Is humanity forming, en-masse?—for lo! tyrants trem-
ble, crowns grow dim; The earth, restive, confronts a new era, perhaps a gen-
eral divine war; No one knows what will happen next—such portents
fill the days and nights; [ begin page 375 ]

ppp.00270.377.jpg Years prophetical! the space ahead as I walk, as I vain-
ly try to pierce it, is full of phantoms; Unborn deeds, things soon to be, project their shapes
around me; This incredible rush and heat—this strange extatic
fever of dreams, O years! Your dreams, O years, how they penetrate through me!
(I know not whether I sleep or wake!) The perform'd America and Europe grow dim, retiring
in shadow behind me, The unperform'd, more gigantic than ever, advance, ad-
vance upon me.

Part of the cluster SONGS OF PARTING.