Leaves of Grass (1867)
|
| OF these years I sing, |
| How they pass through convuls'd pains, as through
parturitions; |
| How America illustrates birth, gigantic youth, the
promise, the sure fulfilment, despite of people —Illustrates evil as well as good; |
| How many hold despairingly yet to the models de-
parted, 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 unform'd, 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 convuls'd, 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. |