Leaves of Grass (1867)


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EUROPE,
The 72d and 73d Years of These States.


1  SUDDENLY, out of its stale and drowsy lair, the lair
         of slaves,
Like lightning it le'pt forth, half startled at itself,
Its feet upon the ashes and the rags—its hands tight
         to the throats of kings.

2  O hope and faith!
O aching close of exiled patriots' lives!
O many a sicken'd heart!
Turn back unto this day, and make yourselves afresh.

3  And you, paid to defile the People! you liars,
         mark!
Not for numberless agonies, murders, lusts,
For court thieving in its manifold mean forms, worm-
         ing from his simplicity the poor man's wages,
For many a promise sworn by royal lips, and broken,
         and laugh'd at in the breaking,
Then in their power, not for all these did the blow.
         strike revenge, or the heads of the nobles fall;
The People scorn'd the ferocity of kings.

4  But the sweetness of mercy brew'd bitter destruc-
         tion, and the frighten'd rulers come back;
Each comes in state with his train—hangman, priest,
         tax-gatherer,
Soldier, lawyer, lord, jailer, and sycophant.

5  Yet behind all, lowering, stealing—lo, a Shape,
Vague as the night, draped interminably, head, front
         and form, in scarlet folds,
Whose face and eyes none may see,
Out of its robes only this—the red robes, lifted by the
         arm,
 


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One finger, crook'd, pointed high over the top, like
         the head of a snake appears.

6  Meanwhile, corpses lie in new-made graves—bloody
         corpses of young men;
The rope of the gibbet hangs heavily, the bullets of
         princes are flying, the creatures of power laugh
         aloud,
And all these things bear fruits—and they are good.

7  Those corpses of young men,
Those martyrs that hang from the gibbets—those
         hearts pierc'd by the gray lead,
Cold and motionless as they seem, live elsewhere with
         unslaughter'd vitality.

8  They live in other youngmen, O kings!
They live in brothers, again ready to defy you!
They were purified by death—they were taught and
         exalted.

9  Not a grave of the murder'd for freedom, but grows
         seed for freedom, in its turn to bear seed,
Which the winds carry afar and re-sow, and the rains
         and the snows nourish.

10  Not a disembodied spirit can the weapons of tyrants
         let loose,
But it stalks invisibly over the earth, whispering,
         counseling, cautioning.

11  Liberty! let others despair of you! I never despair
         of you.

12  Is the house shut? Is the master away?
Nevertheless, be ready—be not weary of watching;
He will soon return—his messengers come anon.
 
 
 
 
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