Leaves of Grass (1860)
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| A THOUGHT of what I am here for, |
| Of these years I sing—how they pass through con-
vulsed pains, as through parturitions; |
| How America illustrates birth, gigantic youth, the
promise, the sure fulfilment, despite of people —Illustrates evil as well as good; |
)
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| Of how many hold despairingly yet to the models
departed, caste, myths, obedience, compulsion, and to infidelity; |
| How few see the arrived models, the Athletes, The
States—or see freedom or spirituality—or hold any faith in results, |
| (But I see the Athletes—and I see the results
glorious and inevitable—and they again leading to other results;) |
| How the great cities appear—How the Democratic
masses, turbulent, wilful, as I love them, |
| How the whirl, the contest, the wrestle of evil with
good, the sounding and resounding, keep on and on; |
| How society waits unformed, and is between things
ended and things begun; |
| How America is the continent of glories, and of the
triumph of freedom, and of the Democracies, and of the fruits of society, and of all that is begun; |
| And how The States are complete in themselves—
And how all triumphs and glories are complete in themselves, to lead onward, |
| And how these of mine, and of The States, will in
their turn be convulsed, and serve other par- turitions and transitions, |
| And how all people, sights, combinations, the Demo-
cratic masses too, serve—and how every fact serves, |
| And how now, or at any time, each serves the
exquisite transition of Death. |
)
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