To the States,
Part of the cluster LEAVES OF GRASS.
TO THE STATES,
To Identify the 16th, 17th, or 18th Presidentiad.
WHY reclining, interrogating? Why myself and alldrowsing? What deepening twilight! scum floating atop of the
waters! Who are they, as bats and night-dogs, askant in the
Capitol? What a filthy Presidentiad! (O south, your torrid suns!
O north, your arctic freezings!) Are those really Congressmen? are those the great
Judges? is that the President? Then I will sleep awhile yet—for I see that These States
sleep, for reasons; (With gathering murk—with muttering thunder and
lambent shoots, we all duly awake, South, north, east, west, inland and seaboard, we will
surely awake.)
Part of the cluster LEAVES OF GRASS.