If I should need to name, O Western World!
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[begin leaf 1 recto]
your powerfulest scene to-day, 'T would not be you, Niagara—nor you, ye
limitless prairies—nor your huge
rifts of cañons, Colorado, Nor you, Yosemite, with all your spasmic
geyser‑loops ascending to the skies, ap-
pearing and disappearing, Nor Oregon's white cones—nor Huron's belt
of mighty lakes—nor Mississippi's stream: This seething hemisphere's, ^humanity, as now, I'd name—
the still small voice preparing—
America's choosing day, (The heart of it not in the chosen—the act
itself the main, thegreat
quad[illegible]
quadrennial
choosing,) The stretch ofnNorth and
sSouth arouse'd—
sea‑board and inland—Texas to Maine, The Prairie States, Vermont, Virginia, Cali-
fornia, The final ballot‑shower fromeEast to
wWest—
the paradox and conflict, The countless snow‑flakes falling—(a swordless
conflict, [begin leaf 1 verso]
[begin leaf 2 recto]
Yet more than all Rome's wars of old,
or modern Napoleon's;) Or good or ill ^humanity——welcoming the darker odds,
the dross, the scene's debris—:
Foams and ferments the wine? it
is
serves
to puri-
fy—while the heart pants, life glows; These stormy gusts and winds waft precious
ships, Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails. Walt Whitman Camden, N.J., Oct. 25, 1884. [begin leaf 2 verso]
[begin leaf 3 recto]
Whitman
[begin leaf 3 verso]
If I should need to name, O Western World!
Presidential canvass and pending Election, 1884.
If I should need to name, O Western World!your powerfulest scene to-day, 'T would not be you, Niagara—nor you, ye
limitless prairies—nor your huge
rifts of cañons, Colorado, Nor you, Yosemite, with all your spasmic
geyser‑loops ascending to the skies, ap-
pearing and disappearing, Nor Oregon's white cones—nor Huron's belt
of mighty lakes—nor Mississippi's stream: This seething hemisphere's, ^humanity, as now, I'd name—
the still small voice preparing—
America's choosing day, (The heart of it not in the chosen—the act
itself the main, the
choosing,) The stretch of
sea‑board and inland—Texas to Maine, The Prairie States, Vermont, Virginia, Cali-
fornia, The final ballot‑shower from
the paradox and conflict, The countless snow‑flakes falling—(a swordless
conflict, [begin leaf 1 verso]
[begin leaf 2 recto]
Yet more than all Rome's wars of old,
or modern Napoleon's;) Or good or ill ^humanity——welcoming the darker odds,
the dross, the scene's debris
fy—while the heart pants, life glows; These stormy gusts and winds waft precious
ships, Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails. Walt Whitman Camden, N.J., Oct. 25, 1884. [begin leaf 2 verso]
[begin leaf 3 recto]
Whitman
[begin leaf 3 verso]