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Leaves of Grass (1860)
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Apostroph.
| O flowers of the prairies! |
| O space boundless! O hum of mighty products! |
O you teeming cities! O so invincible, turbulent,
proud!
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| O race of the future! O women! |
| O fathers! O you men of passion and the storm! |
| O native power only! O beauty! |
| O yourself! O God! O divine average! |
O you bearded roughs! O bards! O all those slum-
berers!
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O arouse! the dawn-bird's throat sounds shrill! Do
you not hear the cock crowing?
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O, as I walk'd the beach, I heard the mournful notes
foreboding a tempest—the low, oft-repeated
shriek of the diver, the long-lived loon;
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O I heard, and yet hear, angry thunder;—O you
sailors! O ships! make quick preparation!
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O from his masterful sweep, the warning cry of the
eagle!
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(Give way there, all! It is useless! Give up your
spoils;)
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O sarcasms! Propositions! (O if the whole world
should prove indeed a sham, a sell!)
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O I believe there is nothing real but America and
freedom!
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| O to sternly reject all except Democracy! |
| O imperator! O who dare confront you and me? |
O to promulgate our own! O to build for that which
builds for mankind!
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O feuillage! O North! O the slope drained by the
Mexican sea!
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| O all, all inseparable—ages, ages, ages! |
O a curse on him that would dissever this Union for
any reason whatever!
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| O climates, labors! O good and evil! O death! |
| O you strong with iron and wood! O Personality! |
O the village or place which has the greatest man or
woman! even if it be only a few ragged huts;
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O the city where women walk in public processions in
the streets, the same as the men;
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| O a wan and terrible emblem, by me adopted! |
| O shapes arising! shapes of the future centuries! |
| O muscle and pluck forever for me! |
| O workmen and workwomen forever for me! |
O farmers and sailors! O drivers of horses forever
for me!
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| O I will make the new bardic list of trades and tools! |
| O you coarse and wilful! I love you! |
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O South! O longings for my dear home! O soft and
sunny airs!
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O pensive! O I must return where the palm grows
and the mocking-bird sings, or else I die!
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O equality! O organic compacts! I am come to be
your born poet!
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O whirl, contest, sounding and resounding! I am
your poet, because I am part of you;
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| O days by-gone! Enthusiasts! Antecedents! |
| O vast preparations for These States! O years! |
O what is now being sent forward thousands of years
to come!
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| O mediums! O to teach! to convey the invisible faith! |
To promulge real things! to journey through all The
States!
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O creation! O to-day! O laws! O unmitigated
adoration!
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| O for mightier broods of orators, artists, and singers! |
O for native songs! carpenter's, boatman's, plough-
man's songs! shoemaker's songs!
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| O haughtiest growth of time! O free and extatic! |
| O what I, here, preparing, warble for! |
O you hastening light! O the sun of the world will
ascend, dazzling, and take his height—and you
too will ascend;
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O so amazing and so broad! up there resplendent,
darting and burning;
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O prophetic! O vision staggered with weight of light!
with pouring glories!
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| O copious! O hitherto unequalled! |
O Libertad! O compact! O union impossible to
dissever!
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| O my Soul! O lips becoming tremulous, powerless! |
| O centuries, centuries yet ahead! |
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O voices of greater orators! I pause—I listen for
you!
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O you States! Cities! defiant of all outside authority!
I spring at once into your arms! you I most
love!
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| O you grand Presidentiads! I wait for you! |
| New history! New heroes! I project you! |
Visions of poets! only you really last! O sweep on!
sweep on!
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| O Death! O you striding there! O I cannot yet! |
| O heights! O infinitely too swift and dizzy yet! |
O purged lumine! you threaten me more than I can
stand!
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| O present! I return while yet I may to you! |
| O poets to come, I depend upon you! |
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