Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass (1860)

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To a Foiled Revolter or Revoltress.

¹ COURAGE! my brother or my sister!

Keep on! Liberty is to be subserved, whatever occurs;

That is nothing, that is quelled by one or two failures,
or any number of failures,

Or by the indifference or ingratitude of the people,
or by any unfaithfulness,

Or the show of the tushes of power—soldiers, cannon,
penal statutes.

² What we believe in waits latent forever through
         Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America,
         Australia, Cuba, and all the islands and archi-
         pelagoes of the sea.

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³ What we believe in invites no one, promises nothing,
sits in calmness and light, is positive and com-
posed, knows no discouragement,

Waits patiently its time—a year—a century—a
hundred centuries.

⁴ The battle rages with many a loud alarm and fre-
quent advance and retreat,

The infidel triumphs—or supposes he triumphs,

The prison, scaffold, garrote, hand-cuffs, iron necklace
and anklet, lead-balls, do their work,

The named and unnamed heroes pass to other
spheres,

The great speakers and writers are exiled—they lie
sick in distant lands,

The cause is asleep—the strongest throats are still,
choked with their own blood,

The young men drop their eyelashes toward the
ground when they meet,

But for all this, liberty has not gone out of the place,
nor the infidel entered into possession.

⁵ When liberty goes out of a place, it is not the first
to go, nor the second or third to go,

It waits for all the rest to go—it is the last.

⁶ When there are no more memories of the superb
lovers of the nations of the world,

The superb lovers' names scouted in the public
gatherings by the lips of the orators,

Boys not christened after them, but christened after
traitors and murderers instead,

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Tyrants' and priests' successes really acknowledged
anywhere, for all the ostensible appearance,

You or I walking abroad upon the earth, elated at
the sight of slaves, no matter who they are,

And when all life, and all the Souls of men and women
are discharged from any part of the earth,

Then shall the instinct of liberty be discharged from
that part of the earth,

Then shall the infidel and the tyrant come into
possession.

⁷ Then courage!

For till all ceases, neither must you cease.

⁸ I do not know what you are for, (I do not what I am
for myself, nor what any thing is for,)

But I will search carefully for it in being foiled,

In defeat, poverty, imprisonment—for they too are
great.

⁹ Did we think victory great?

So it is—But now it seems to me, when it cannot be
helped, that defeat is great,

And that death and dismay are great.

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