Table of Contents (1871)

Poems in this cluster

• As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario's Shore
• Pioneers! O Pioneers!
• Respondez!
• Turn, O Libertad
• Adieu to a Soldier
• As I Walk These Broad, Majestic Days
• Weave In, Weave In, My Hardy Life
• Race of Veterans
• O Sun of Real Peace

---

MARCHES NOW THE WAR IS  
 OVER.

AS I SAT ALONE BY BLUE ONTARIO'S SHORE.

1

¹As I sat alone, by blue Ontario's shore, As I mused of these mighty days, and of peace return'd,  
 and the dead that return no more, A Phantom, gigantic, superb, with stern visage, accosted  
 me; Chant me the poem, it said, that comes from the soul of  
  America—chant me the carol of victory; And strike up the marches of Libertad—marches more  
  powerful yet; And sing me before you go, the song of the throes of  
  Democracy. ²(Democracy—the destin'd conqueror—yet treacherous  
 lip-smiles everywhere, And Death and infidelity at every step.)

2

³A Nation announcing itself, I myself make the only growth by which I can be ap- 
 preciated, I reject none, accept all, then reproduce all in my own  
 forms.   [ begin page 310 ]ppp.00270.312.jpg ⁴A breed whose proof is in time and deeds; What we are, we are—nativity is answer enough to  
 objections; We wield ourselves as a weapon is wielded, We are powerful and tremendous in ourselves, We are executive in ourselves—We are sufficient in the  
 variety of ourselves, We are the most beautiful to ourselves, and in ourselves; We stand self-pois'd in the middle, branching thence  
 over the world; From Missouri, Nebraska, or Kansas, laughing attacks  
 to scorn. ⁵Nothing is sinful to us outside of ourselves, Whatever appears, whatever does not appear, we are  
 beautiful or sinful in ourselves only. ⁶(O mother! O sisters dear! If we are lost, no victor else has destroy'd us; It is by ourselves we go down to eternal night.)

3

⁷Have you thought there could be but a single  
 Supreme? There can be any number of Supremes—One does not  
 countervail another, any more than one eyesight  
 countervails another, or one life countervails  
 another. ⁸All is eligible to all, All is for individuals—All is for you, No condition is prohibited—not God's, or any. ⁹All comes by the body—only health puts you rapport  
 with the universe. ¹⁰Produce great persons, the rest follows.   [ begin page 311 ]ppp.00270.313.jpg

4

¹¹America isolated I sing; I say that works made here in the spirit of other lands,  
 are so much poison in The States. ¹²(How dare such insects as we see assume to write  
 poems for America? For our victorious armies, and the offspring following  
 the armies?) ¹³Piety and conformity to them that like! Peace, obesity, allegiance, to them that like! I am he who tauntingly compels men, women, nations, Crying, Leap from your seats, and contend for your  
 lives! ¹⁴I am he who walks the States with a barb'd tongue,  
 questioning every one I meet; Who are you, that wanted only to be told what you  
 knew before? Who are you, that wanted only a book to join you in  
 your nonsense? ¹⁵(With pangs and cries, as thine own, O bearer of  
 many children! These clamors wild, to a race of pride I give.) ¹⁶O lands! would you be freer than all that has ever  
 been before! If you would be freer than all that has been before,  
 come listen to me. ¹⁷Fear grace—Fear elegance, civilization, delicatesse, Fear the mellow sweet, the sucking of honey-juice; Beware the advancing mortal ripening of nature, Beware what precedes the decay of the ruggedness of  
 states and men.   [ begin page 312 ]ppp.00270.314.jpg

5

¹⁸Ages, precedents, have long been accumulating undi- 
 rected materials, America brings builders, and brings its own styles. ¹⁹The immortal poets of Asia and Europe have done  
 their work, and pass'd to other spheres, A work remains, the work of surpassing all they have  
 done. ²⁰America, curious toward foreign characters, stands  
 by its own at all hazards, Stands removed, spacious, composite, sound—initiates  
 the true use of precedents, Does not repel them, or the past, or what they have  
 produced under their forms, Takes the lesson with calmness, perceives the corpse  
 slowly borne from the house, Perceives that it waits a little while in the door—that  
 it was fittest for its days, That its life has descended to the stalwart and well- 
 shaped heir who approaches, And that he shall be fittest for his days. ²¹Any period, one nation must lead, One land must be the promise and reliance of the  
 future. ²²These States are the amplest poem, Here is not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of  
 nations, Here the doings of men correspond with the broadcast  
 doings of the day and night, Here is what moves in magnificent masses, careless of  
 particulars, Here are the roughs, beards, friendliness, combative- 
 ness, the Soul loves, Here the flowing trains—here the crowds, equality,  
 diversity, the Soul loves.   [ begin page 313 ]ppp.00270.315.jpg

6

²³Land of lands, and bards to corroborate! Of them, standing among them, one lifts to the light his  
 west-bred face, To him the hereditary countenance bequeath'd, both  
 mother's and father's, His first parts substances, earth, water, animals, trees, Built of the common stock, having room for far and  
 near, Used to dispense with other lands, incarnating this  
 land, Attracting it Body and Soul to himself, hanging on its  
 neck with incomparable love, Plunging his seminal muscle into its merits and de- 
 merits, Making its cities, beginnings, events, diversities, wars,  
 vocal in him, Making its rivers, lakes, bays, embouchure in him, Mississippi with yearly freshets and changing chutes—  
 Columbia, Niagara, Hudson, spending them- 
 selves lovingly in him, If the Atlantic coast stretch, or the Pacific coast stretch,  
 he stretching with them north or south, Spanning between them, east and west, and touching  
 whatever is between them, Growths growing from him to offset the growth of  
 pine, cedar, hemlock, live-oak, locust, chestnut,  
 hickory, cotton-wood, orange, magnolia, Tangles as tangled in him as any cane-brake or swamp, He likening sides and peaks of mountains, forests  
 coated with northern transparent ice, Off him pasturage sweet and natural as savanna, up- 
 land, prairie, Through him flights, whirls, screams, answering those  
 of the fish-hawk, mocking-bird, night-heron, and  
 eagle; His spirit surrounding his country's spirit, unclosed to  
 good and evil, Surrounding the essences of real things, old times and  
 present times,   [ begin page 314 ]ppp.00270.316.jpg Surrounding just found shores, islands, tribes of red  
 aborigines, Weather-beaten vessels, landings, settlements, embryo  
 stature and muscle, The haughty defiance of the Year 1—war, peace, the  
 formation of the Constitution, The separate States, the simple, elastic scheme, the im- 
 migrants, The Union, always swarming with blatherers, and  
 always sure and impregnable, The unsurvey'd interior, log-houses, clearings, wild  
 animals, hunters, trappers; Surrounding the multiform agriculture, mines, tem- 
 perature, the gestation of new States, Congress convening every Twelfth-month, the mem- 
 bers duly coming up from the uttermost parts; Surrounding the noble character of mechanics and  
 farmers, especially the young men, Responding their manners, speech, dress, friendships—  
 the gait they have of persons who never knew  
 how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors, The freshness and candor of their physiognomy, the  
 copiousness and decision of their phrenology, The picturesque looseness of their carriage, their fierce- 
 ness when wrong'd, The fluency of their speech, their delight in music, their  
 curiosity, good temper, and open-handedness—  
 the whole composite make, The prevailing ardor and enterprise, the large amative- 
 ness, The perfect equality of the female with the male, the  
 fluid movement of the population, The superior marine, free commerce, fisheries, whaling,  
 gold-digging, Wharf-hemm'd cities, railroad and steamboat lines, in- 
 tersecting all points, Factories, mercantile life, labor-saving machinery, the  
 north-east, north-west, south-west, Manhattan firemen, the Yankee swap, southern planta- 
 tion life,   [ begin page 315 ]ppp.00270.317.jpg Slavery—the murderous, treacherous conspiracy to raise  
 it upon the ruins of all the rest; On and on to the grapple with it—Assassin! then your  
 life or ours be the stake—and respite no more.

7

²⁴(Lo! high toward heaven, this day, Libertad! from the conqueress' field return'd, I mark the new aureola around your head; No more of soft astral, but dazzling and fierce, With war's flames, and the lambent lightnings playing, And your port immovable where you stand; With still the inextinguishable glance, and the clench'd  
 and lifted fist, And your foot on the neck of the menacing one, the  
 scorner, utterly crush'd beneath you; The menacing, arrogant one, that strode and advanced  
 with his senseless scorn, bearing the murderous  
 knife; —Lo! the wide swelling one, the braggart, that would  
 yesterday do so much! To-day a carrion dead and damn'd, the despised of all  
 the earth! An offal rank, to the dunghill maggots spurn'd.)

8

²⁵Others take finish, but the Republic is ever construc- 
 tive, and ever keeps vista; Others adorn the past—but you, O days of the present,  
 I adorn you! O days of the future, I believe in you! I isolate myself  
 for your sake; O America, because you build for mankind, I build for  
 you! O well-beloved stone-cutters! I lead them who plan with  
 decision and science, I lead the present with friendly hand toward the fu- 
 ture.   [ begin page 316 ]ppp.00270.318.jpg ²⁶Bravas to all impulses sending sane children to the  
 next age! But damn that which spends itself, with no thought of  
 the stain, pains, dismay, feebleness, it is be- 
 queathing.

9

²⁷I listened to the Phantom on Ontario's shore, I heard the voice arising, demanding bards; By them all native and grand—by them alone can The  
 States be fused into the compact organism of a  
 Nation. ²⁸To hold men together by paper and seal, or by com- 
 pulsion, is no account; That only holds men together which aggregates all in a  
 living principle, as the hold of the limbs of the  
 body, or the fibres of plants. ²⁹Of all races and eras, These States, with veins full of  
 poetical stuff, most need poets, and are to have  
 the greatest, and use them the greatest; Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so  
 much as their poets shall. ³⁰(Soul of love, and tongue of fire! Eye to pierce the deepest deeps, and sweep the world! —Ah, mother! prolific and full in all besides—yet how  
 long barren, barren?)

10

³¹Of These States, the poet is the equable man, Not in him, but off from him, things are grotesque,  
 eccentric, fail of their full returns, Nothing out of its place is good, nothing in its place is  
 bad, He bestows on every object or quality its fit proportion,  
 neither more nor less, He is the arbiter of the diverse, he is the key, He is the equalizer of his age and land,   [ begin page 317 ]ppp.00270.319.jpg He supplies what wants supplying—he checks what  
 wants checking, In peace, out of him speaks the spirit of peace, large,  
 rich, thrifty, building populous towns, encour- 
 aging agriculture, arts, commerce, lighting the  
 study of man, the Soul, health, immortality, gov- 
 ernment; In war, he is the best backer of the war—he fetches  
 artillery as good as the engineer's—he can make  
 every word he speaks draw blood; The years straying toward infidelity, he withholds by  
 his steady faith, He is no arguer, he is judgment—(Nature accepts him  
 absolutely;) He judges not as the judge judges, but as the sun fall- 
 ing round a helpless thing; As he sees the farthest, he has the most faith, His thoughts are the hymns of the praise of things, In the dispute on God and eternity he is silent, He sees eternity less like a play with a prologue and  
 denouement, He sees eternity in men and women—he does not see  
 men and women as dreams or dots. ³²For the great Idea, the idea of perfect and free indi- 
 viduals, For that idea the bard walks in advance, leader of  
 leaders, The attitude of him cheers up slaves, and horrifies  
 foreign despots. ³³Without extinction is Liberty! without retrograde is  
 Equality! They live in the feelings of young men, and the best  
 women; Not for nothing have the indomitable heads of the earth  
 been always ready to fall for Liberty.

11

³⁴For the great Idea! That, O my brethren—that is the mission of Poets.   [ begin page 318 ]ppp.00270.320.jpg ³⁵Songs of stern defiance, ever ready, Songs of the rapid arming, and the march, The flag of peace quick-folded, and instead, the flag we  
 know, Warlike flag of the great Idea. ³⁶(Angry cloth I saw there leaping! I stand again in leaden rain, your flapping folds saluting; I sing you over all, flying, beckoning through the fight  
 —O the hard-contested fight! O the cannons ope their rosy-flashing muzzles! the  
 hurtled balls scream! The battle-front forms amid the smoke—the volleys  
 pour incessant from the line; Hark! the ringing word, Charge!—now the tussle, and  
 the furious maddening yells; Now the corpses tumble curl'd upon the ground, Cold, cold in death, for precious life of you, Angry cloth I saw there leaping.)

12

³⁷Are you he who would assume a place to teach, or be  
 a poet here in The States? The place is August—the terms obdurate. ³⁸Who would assume to teach here, may well prepare  
 himself, body and mind, He may well survey, ponder, arm, fortify, harden, make  
 lithe, himself, He shall surely be question'd beforehand by me with  
 many and stern questions. ³⁹Who are you, indeed, who would talk or sing to  
 America? Have you studied out the land, its idioms and men? Have you learn'd the physiology, phrenology, politics,  
 geography, pride, freedom, friendship, of the  
 land? its substratums and objects?   [ begin page 319 ]ppp.00270.321.jpg Have you consider'd the organic compact of the first day  
 of the first year of Independence, sign'd by the  
 Commissioners, ratified by The States, and  
 read by Washington at the head of the army? Have you possess'd yourself of the Federal Constitution? Do you see who have left all feudal processes and poems  
 behind them, and assumed the poems and pro- 
 cesses of Democracy? Are you faithful to things? do you teach as the land  
 and sea, the bodies of men, womanhood, ama- 
 tiveness, angers, teach? Have you sped through fleeting customs, popularities? Can you hold your hand against all seductions, follies,  
 whirls, fierce contentions? are you very strong?  
 are you really of the whole people? Are you not of some coterie? some school or mere  
 religion? Are you done with reviews and criticisms of life? ani- 
 mating now to life itself? Have you vivified yourself from the maternity of These  
 States? Have you too the old, ever-fresh forbearance and im- 
 partiality? Do you hold the like love for those hardening to ma- 
 turity; for the last-born? little and big? and  
 for the errant? ⁴⁰What is this you bring my America? Is it uniform with my country? Is it not something that has been better told or done  
 before? Have you not imported this, or the spirit of it, in some  
 ship? Is it not a mere tale? a rhyme? a prettiness? is the  
 good old cause in it? Has it not dangled long at the heels of the poets, poli 
 ticians, literats, of enemies' lands? Does it not assume that what is notoriously gone is still  
 here? Does it answer universal needs? will it improve man- 
 ners?   [ begin page 320 ]ppp.00270.322.jpg Does it sound, with trumpet-voice, the proud victory of  
 the Union, in that secession war? Can your performance face the open fields and the sea- 
 side? Will it absorb into me as I absorb food, air—to appear  
 again in my strength, gait, face? Have real employments contributed to it? original  
 makers—not mere amanuenses? Does it meet modern discoveries, calibers, faces, face to  
 face? What does it mean to me? to American persons, pro- 
 gresses, cities? Chicago, Kanada, Arkansas? the  
 planter, Yankee, Georgian, native, immigrant,  
 sailors, squatters, old States, new States? Does it encompass all The States, and the unexcep- 
 tional rights of all the men and woman of the  
 earth? (the genital impulse of These States;) Does it see behind the apparent custodians, the real  
 custodians, standing, menacing, silent—the me- 
 chanics, Manhattanese, western men, southerners,  
 significant alike in their apathy, and in the  
 promptness of their love? Does it see what finally befalls, and has always finally  
 befallen, each temporizer, patcher, outsider, par- 
 tialist, alarmist, infidel, who has ever ask'd any- 
 thing of America? What mocking and scornful negligence? The track strew'd with the dust of skeletons; By the roadside others disdainfully toss'd.

13

⁴¹Rhymes and rhymers pass away—poems distill'd  
 from foreign poems pass away, The swarms of reflectors and the polite pass, and leave  
 ashes; Admirers, importers, obedient persons, make but the  
 soil of literature; America justifies itself, give it time—no disguise can  
 deceive it, or conceal from it—it is impassive  
 enough,   [ begin page 321 ]ppp.00270.323.jpg Only towards the likes of itself will it advance to meet  
 them, If its poets appear, it will in due time advance to meet  
 them—there is no fear of mistake, (The proof of a poet shall be sternly deferr'd, till his  
 country absorbs him as affectionately as he has  
 absorb'd it.) ⁴²He masters whose spirit masters—he tastes sweetest  
 who results sweetest in the long run; The blood of the brawn beloved of time is unconstraint; In the need of poems, philosophy, politics, manners,  
 engineering, an appropriate native grand-opera,  
 shipcraft, any craft, he or she is greatest who  
 contributes the greatest original practical ex- 
 ample. ⁴³Already a nonchalant breed, silently emerging, ap- 
 pears on the streets, People's lips salute only doers, lovers, satisfiers, positive  
 knowers; There will shortly be no more priests—I say their work  
 is done. Death is without emergencies here, but life is perpet- 
 ual emergencies here, Are your body, days, manners, superb? after death  
 you shall be superb; Justice, health, self-esteem, clear the way with irresist- 
 ible power; How dare you place anything before a man?

14

⁴⁴Fall behind me, States! A man before all—myself, typical, before all. ⁴⁵Give me the pay I have served for! Give me to sing the song of the great Idea! take all  
 the rest; I have loved the earth, sun, animals—I have despised  
 riches,   [ begin page 322 ]ppp.00270.324.jpg I have given alms to every one that ask'd, stood up for  
 the stupid and crazy, devoted my income and  
 labor to others, I have hated tyrants, argued not concerning God, had  
 patience and indulgence toward the people,  
 taken off my hat to nothing known or unknown, I have gone freely with powerful uneducated persons,  
 and with the young, and with the mothers of  
 families, I have read these leaves to myself in the open air—I  
 have tried them by trees, stars, rivers, I have dismiss'd whatever insulted my own Soul or  
 defiled my Body, I have claim'd nothing to myself which I have not  
 carefully claim'd for others on the same terms, I have sped to the camps, and comrades found and  
 accepted from every State; (In war of you, as well as peace, my suit is good, Amer- 
 ica—sadly I boast; Upon this breast has many a dying soldier lean'd, to  
 breathe his last; This arm, this hand, this voice, have nourish'd, rais'd,  
 restored, To life recalling many a prostrate form:) —I am willing to wait to be understood by the growth  
 of the taste of myself, I reject none, I permit all. ⁴⁶(Say, O mother! have I not to your thought been  
 faithful? Have I not, through life, kept you and yours before  
 me?)

15

⁴⁷I swear I begin to see the meaning of these things! It is not the earth, it is not America, who is so great, It is I who am great, or to be great—it is you up there,  
 or any one; It is to walk rapidly through civilizations, governments,  
 theories,   [ begin page 323 ]ppp.00270.325.jpg Through poems, pageants, shows, to form great indi- 
 viduals. ⁴⁸Underneath all, individuals! I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores indi- 
 viduals, The American compact is altogether with individuals, The only government is that which makes minute of  
 individuals, The whole theory of the universe is directed to one  
 single individual—namely, to You. ⁴⁹(Mother! with subtle sense severe—with the naked  
 sword in your hand, I saw you at last refuse to treat but directly with indi- 
 viduals.)

16

⁵⁰Underneath all, nativity, I swear I will stand by my own nativity—pious or im- 
 pious, so be it; I swear I am charm'd with nothing except nativity, Men, women, cities, nations, are only beautiful from  
 nativity. ⁵¹Underneath all is the need of the expression of love  
 for men and women, I swear I have seen enough of mean and impotent  
 modes of expressing love for men and women, After this day I take my own modes of expressing love  
 for men and women. ⁵²I swear I will have each quality of my race in my- 
 self, (Talk as you like, he only suits These States whose  
 manners favor the audacity and sublime turbu- 
 lence of The States.) ⁵³Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature,  
 governments, ownerships, I swear I perceive  
 other lessons,   [ begin page 324 ]ppp.00270.326.jpg Underneath all, to me is myself—to you, yourself—(the  
 same monotonous old song.)

17

⁵⁴O I see now, flashing, that this America is only you  
 and me, Its power, weapons, testimony, are you and me Its crimes, lies, thefts, defections, slavery, are you and  
 me, Its Congress is you and me—the officers, capitols, ar- 
 mies, ships, are you and me, Its endless gestations of new States are you and me, The war—that war so bloody and grim—the war I will  
 henceforth forget—was you and me, Natural and artificial are you and me, Freedom, language, poems, employments, are you and  
 me, Past, present, future, are you and me.

18

⁵⁵I swear I dare not shirk any part of myself, Not any part of America, good or bad, Not the promulgation of Liberty—not to cheer up slaves  
 and horrify foreign despots, Not to build for that which builds for mankind, Not to balance ranks, complexions, creeds, and the  
 sexes, Not to justify science, nor the march of equality, Nor to feed the arrogant blood of the brawn beloved  
 of time. ⁵⁶I swear I am for those that have never been mas- 
 ter'd! For men and women whose tempers have never been  
 master'd, For those whom laws, theories, conventions, can never  
 master.   [ begin page 325 ]ppp.00270.327.jpg ⁵⁷I swear I am for those who walk abreast with the  
 whole earth! Who inaugurate one, to inaugurate all. ⁵⁸I swear I will not be outfaced by irrational things! I will penetrate what it is in them that is sarcastic upon  
 me! I will make cities and civilizations defer to me! This is what I have learnt from America—it is the  
 amount—and it I teach again. ⁵⁹(Democracy! while weapons were everywhere aim'd  
 at your breast, I saw you serenely give birth to immortal children—  
 saw in dreams your dilating form; Saw you with spreading mantle covering the world.)

19

⁶⁰I will confront these shows of the day and night! I will know if I am to be less than they! I will see if I am not as majestic as they! I will see if I am not as subtle and real as they! I will see if I am to be less generous than they! ⁶¹I will see if I have no meaning, while the houses and  
 ships have meaning! I will see if the fishes and birds are to be enough for  
 themselves, and I am not to be enough for my- 
 self.

20

⁶²I match my spirit against yours, you orbs, growths,  
 mountains, brutes, Copious as you are, I absorb you all in myself, and be- 
 come the master myself. ⁶³America isolated, yet embodying all, what is it finally  
 except myself? These States—what are they except myself?   [ begin page 326 ]ppp.00270.328.jpg ⁶⁴I know now why the earth is gross, tantalizing,  
 wicked—it is for my sake, I take you to be mine, you beautiful, terrible, rude  
 forms. ⁶⁵(Mother! bend down, bend close to me your face! I know not what these plots and wars, and deferments  
 are for; I know not fruition's success—but I know that through  
 war and peace your work goes on, and must yet  
 go on.)

21

⁶⁶………Thus, by blue Ontario's shore, While the winds fann'd me, and the waves came troop- 
 ing toward me, I thrill'd with the Power's pulsations—and the charm  
 of my theme was upon me, Till the tissues that held me, parted their ties upon  
 me. ⁶⁷And I saw the free Souls of poets; The loftiest bards of past ages strode before me, Strange, large men, long unwaked, undisclosed, were  
 disclosed to me.

22

⁶⁸O my rapt verse, my call—mock me not! Not for the bards of the past—not to invoke them have  
 I launch'd you forth, Not to call even those lofty bards here by Ontario's  
 shores, Have I sung, so capricious and loud, my savage song. ⁶⁹Bards for my own land, only, I invoke; (For the war, the war is over—the field is clear'd,) Till they strike up marches henceforth triumphant and  
 onward, To cheer, O mother, your boundless, expectant soul.   [ begin page 327 ]ppp.00270.329.jpg ⁷⁰Bards grand as these days so grand! Bards of the great Idea! Bards of the peaceful inven- 
 tions! (for the war, the war is over!) Yet Bards of the latent armies—a million soldiers wait- 
 ing ever-ready, Bards towering like hills—(no more these dots, these  
 pigmies, these little piping straws, these gnats,  
 that fill the hour, to pass for poets;) Bards with songs as from burning coals, or the light- 
 ning's fork'd stripes! Ample Ohio's bards—bards for California! inland  
 bards—bards of the war;) (As a wheel turns on its axle, so I find my chants turn- 
 ing finally on the war;) Bards of pride! Bards tallying the ocean's roar, and  
 the swooping eagle's scream! You, by my charm, I invoke!

PIONEERS! O PIONEERS!

1

COME, my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready; Have you your pistols? have you your sharp edged  
 axes? Pioneers! O pioneers!

2

For we cannot tarry here, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt  
 of danger, We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,  
 Pioneers! O pioneers!   [ begin page 328 ]ppp.00270.330.jpg

3

O you youths, western youths, So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and  
 friendship, Plain I see you, western youths, see you tramping with  
 the foremost, Pioneers! O pioneers!

4

Have the elder races halted? Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied, over there  
 beyond the seas? We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the  
 lesson, Pioneers! O pioneers!

5

All the past we leave behind; We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied  
 world; Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and  
 the march, Pioneers! O pioneers!

6

We detachments steady throwing, Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains  
 steep, Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go, the  
 unknown ways, Pioneers! O pioneers!

7

We primeval forests felling, We the rivers stemming, vexing we, and piercing deep  
 the mines within; We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil up- 
 heaving, Pioneers! O pioneers!   [ begin page 329 ]ppp.00270.331.jpg

8

Colorado men are we, From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the  
 high plateaus, From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting  
 trail we come, Pioneers! O pioneers!

9

From Nebraska, from Arkansas, Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the  
 continental blood intervein'd; All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern,  
 all the Northern, Pioneers! O pioneers!

10

O resistless, restless race! O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender  
 love for all! O I mourn and yet exult—I am rapt with love for all, Pioneers! O pioneers!

11

Raise the mighty mother mistress, Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry  
 mistress, (bend your heads all,) Raise the fang'd and warlike mistress, stern, impassive,  
 weapon'd mistress, Pioneers! O pioneers!

12

See, my children, resolute children, By those swarms upon our rear, we must never yield or  
 falter, Ages back in ghostly millions, frowning there behind us  
 urging, Pioneers! O pioneers!   [ begin page 330 ]ppp.00270.332.jpg

13

On and on, the compact ranks, With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the  
 dead quickly fill'd, Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and  
 never stopping, Pioneers! O pioneers!

14

O to die advancing on! Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour  
 come? Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the  
 gap is fill'd, Pioneers! O pioneers!

15

All the pulses of the world, Falling in, they beat for us, with the western move- 
 ment beat; Holding single or together, steady moving, to the front,  
 all for us, Pioneers! O pioneers!

16

Life's involv'd and varied pageants, All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their  
 work, All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with  
 their slaves, Pioneers! O pioneers!

17

All the hapless silent lovers, All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and  
 the wicked, All the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the  
 dying, Pioneers! O pioneers!   [ begin page 331 ]ppp.00270.333.jpg

18

I too with my soul and body, We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way, Through these shores, amid the shadows, with the ap- 
 paritions pressing, Pioneers! O pioneers!

19

Lo! the darting bowling orb! Lo! the brother orbs around! all the clustering suns  
 and planets; All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams, Pioneers! O pioneers!

20

These are of us, they are with us, All for primal needed work, while the followers there  
 in embryo wait behind, We to-day's procession heading, we the route for travel  
 clearing, Pioneers! O pioneers!

21

O you daughters of the west! O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and  
 you wives! Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move  
 united, Pioneers! O pioneers!

22

Minstrels latent on the prairies! (Shrouded bards of other lands! you may sleep—you  
 have done your work;) Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and  
 tramp amid us, Pioneers! O pioneers!   [ begin page 332 ]ppp.00270.334.jpg

23

Not for delectations sweet; Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and  
 the studious; Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame en- 
 joyment, Pioneers! O pioneers!

24

Do the feasters gluttonous feast? Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and  
 bolted doors? Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the  
 ground, Pioneers! O pioneers?

25

Has the night descended? Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discour- 
 aged, nodding on our way? Yet a passing hour I yield you, in your tracks to pause  
 oblivious, Pioneers! O pioneers!

26

Till with sound of trumpet, Far, far off the day-break call—hark! how loud and  
 clear I hear it wind; Swift! to the head of the army!—swift! spring to your  
 places, Pioneers! O pioneers!   [ begin page 333 ]ppp.00270.335.jpg

RESPONDEZ!

RESPONDEZ! Respondez! (The war is completed—the price is paid—the title is  
 settled beyond recall;) Let every one answer! let those who sleep be waked!  
 let none evade! Must we still go on with our affectations and sneaking? Let me bring this to a close—I pronounce openly for  
 a new distribution of roles; Let that which stood in front go behind! and let that  
 which was behind advance to the front and  
 speak; Let murderers, bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new  
 propositions! Let the old propositions be postponed! Let faces and theories be turn'd inside out! let mean- 
 ings be freely criminal, as well as results! Let there be no suggestion above the suggestion of  
 drudgery! Let none be pointed toward his destination! (Say! do  
 you know your destination?) Let men and women be mock'd with bodies and mock'd  
 with Souls! Let the love that waits in them, wait! let it die, or pass  
 still-born to other spheres! Let the sympathy that waits in every man, wait! or let  
 it also pass, a dwarf, to other spheres! Let contradictions prevail! let one thing contradict  
 another! and let one line of my poems contra- 
 dict another! Let the people sprawl with yearning, aimless hands!  
 let their tongues be broken! let their eyes be  
 discouraged! let none descend into their hearts  
 with the fresh lusciousness of love! (Stifled, O days! O lands! in every public and private  
 corruption! Smother'd in thievery, impotence, shamelessness, moun- 
 tain-high; Brazen effrontery, scheming, rolling like ocean's waves  
 around and upon you, O my days! my lands!   [ begin page 334 ]ppp.00270.336.jpg For not even those thunderstorms, nor fiercest light- 
 nings of the war, have purified the atmosphere;) —Let the theory of America still be management, caste,  
 comparison! (Say! what other theory would  
 you?) Let them that distrust birth and death still lead the  
 rest! (Say! why shall they not lead you?) Let the crust of hell be near'd and trod on! let the  
 days be darker than the nights! let slumber bring  
 less slumber than waking time brings! Let the world never appear to him or her for whom it  
 was all made! Let the heart of the young man still exile itself from  
 the heart of the old man! and let the heart of  
 the old man be exiled from that of the young  
 man! Let the sun and moon go! let scenery take the applause  
 of the audience! let there be apathy under the  
 stars! Let freedom prove no man's inalienable right! every  
 one who can tyrannize, let him tyrannize to his  
 satisfaction! Let none but infidels be countenanced! Let the eminence of meanness, treachery, sarcasm, hate,  
 greed, indecency, impotence, lust, be taken for  
 granted above all! let writers, judges, govern- 
 ments, households, religions, philosophies, take  
 such for granted above all! Let the worst men beget children out of the worst  
 women! Let the priest still play at immortality! Let death be inaugurated! Let nothing remain but the ashes of teachers, artists;  
 moralists, lawyers, and learn'd and polite per- 
 sons! Let him who is without my poems be assassinated! Let the cow, the horse, the camel, the garden-bee—let  
 the mud-fish, the lobster, the mussel, eel, the  
 sting-ray, and the grunting pig-fish—let these,  
 and the like of these, be put on a perfect equality  
 with man and woman!   [ begin page 335 ]ppp.00270.337.jpg Let churches accommodate serpents, vermin, and the  
 corpses of those who have died of the most  
 filty of diseases! Let marriage slip down among fools, and be for none  
 but fools! Let men among themselves talk and think forever ob- 
 scenely of women! and let women among them- 
 selves talk and think obscenely of men! Let us all, without missing one, be exposed in public,  
 naked, monthly, at the peril of our lives! let  
 our bodies be freely handled and examined by  
 whoever chooses! Let nothing but copies at second hand be permitted to  
 exist upon the earth! Let the earth desert God, nor let there ever henceforth  
 be mention'd the name of God! Let there be no God! Let there be money, business, imports, exports, custom,  
 authority, precedents, pallor, dyspepsia, smut,  
 ignorance, unbelief! Let judges and criminals be transposed! let the prison- 
 keepers be put in prison! let those that were  
 prisoners take the keys! (Say! why might they  
 not just as well be transposed?) Let the slaves be masters! let the masters become slaves! Let the reformers descend from the stands where they  
 are forever bawling! let an idiot or insane  
 person appear on each of the stands! Let the Asiatic, the African, the European, the Ameri- 
 can, and the Australian, go armed against the  
 murderous stealthiness of each other! let them  
 sleep armed! let none believe in good will! Let there be no unfashionable wisdom! let such be  
 scorn'd and derided off from the earth! Let a floating cloud in the sky—let a wave of the sea—  
 let growing mint, spinach, onions, tomatoes—  
 let these be exhibited as shows, at a great price for  
 admission! Let all the men of These States stand aside for a few  
 smouchers! let the few seize on what they  
 choose! let the rest gawk, giggle, starve, obey!   [ begin page 336 ]ppp.00270.338.jpg Let shadows be furnish'd with genitals! let substances  
 be deprived of their genitals! Let there be wealthy and immense cities—but still  
 through any of them, not a single poet, savior,  
 knower, lover! Let the infidels of These States laugh all faith away! If one man be found who has faith, let the rest set upon  
 him! Let them affright faith! let them destroy the power of  
 breeding faith! Let the she-harlots and the he-harlots be prudent! let  
 them dance on, while seeming lasts! (O seeming!  
 seeming! seeming!) Let the preachers recite creeds! let them still teach  
 only what they have been taught! Let insanity still have charge of sanity! Let books take the place of trees, animals, rivers, clouds! Let the daub'd portraits of heroes supersede heroes! Let the manhood of man never take steps after itself! Let it take steps after eunuchs, and after consumptive  
 and genteel persons! Let the white person again tread the black person  
 under his heel! (Say! which is trodden under  
 heel after all?) Let the reflections of the things of the world be studied  
 in mirrors! let the things themselves still con- 
 tinue unstudied! Let a man seek pleasure everywhere except in himself! Let a woman seek happiness everywhere except in  
 herself! (What real happiness have you had one single hour  
 through your whole life?) Let the limited years of life do nothing for the limitless  
 years of death! (What do you suppose death  
 will do, then?)   [ begin page 337 ]ppp.00270.339.jpg

TURN, O LIBERTAD.

TURN, O Libertad, for the war is over, (From it and all henceforth expanding, doubting no  
 more, resolute, sweeping the world,) Turn from lands retrospective, recording proofs of the  
 past; From the singers that sing the trailing glories of the  
 past; From the chants of the feudal world—the triumphs of  
 kings, slavery, caste; Turn to the world, the triumphs reserv'd and to come—  
 give up that backward world; Leave to the singers of hitherto—give them the trailing  
 past; But what remains, remains for singers for you—wars  
 to come are for you; (Lo! how the wars of the past have duly inured to you  
 —and the wars of the present also inure:) —Then turn, and be not alarm'd, O Libertad—turn  
 your undying face, To where the future, greater than all the past, Is swiftly, surely preparing for you.

ADIEU TO A SOLDIER.

¹ADIEU, O soldier! You of the rude campaigning, (which we shared,) The rapid march, the life of the camp, The hot contention of opposing fronts—the long  
 manuver, Red battles with their slaughter,—the stimulus—the  
 strong, terrific game, Spell of all brave and manly hearts—the trains of Time  
 through you, and like of you, all fill'd, With war, and war's expression.   [ begin page 338 ]ppp.00270.340.jpg ²Adieu, dear comrade! Your mission is fulfill'd—but I, more warlike, Myself, and this contentious soul of mine, Still on our own compaigning bound, Through untried roads, with ambushes, opponents  
 lined, Through many a sharp defeat and many a crisis—often  
 baffled, Here marching, ever marching on, a war fight out—  
 aye here, To fiercer, weightier battles give expression.

As I Walk These Broad, Majestic Days.

¹As I walk these broad, majestic days of peace, (For the war, the struggle of blood finish'd, wherein, O  
 terrific Ideal! Against vast odds, having gloriously won, Now thou stridest on—yet perhaps in time toward  
 denser wars, Perhaps to engage in time in still more dreadful con- 
 tests, dangers, Longer campaigns and crises, labors beyond all others;) —As I walk, solitary, unattended, Around me I hear that eclat of the world—politics,  
 produce, The announcements of recognized things—science, The approved growth of cities, and the spread of inven- 
 tions. ²I see the ships (they will last a few years,) The vast factories, with their foremen and workmen, And hear the endorsement of all, and do not object to  
 it. ³But I too announce solid things; Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing  
 —I watch them,   [ begin page 339 ]ppp.00270.341.jpg Like a grand procession, to music of distant bugles,  
 pouring, triumphantly moving—and grander  
 heaving in sight; They stand for realities—all is as it should be. ⁴Then my realities; What else is so real as mine? Libertad, and the divine average—Freedom to every  
 slave on the face of the earth, The rapt promises and lumin of seers—the spiritual  
 world—these centuries-lasting songs, And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid  
 announcements of any. ⁵For we support all, fuse all, After the rest is done and gone, we remain; There is no final reliance but upon us; Democracy rests finally upon us, (I, my brethren, be- 
 gin it,) And our visions sweep through eternity.

WEAVE IN, WEAVE IN, MY HARDY LIFE.

WEAVE in! weave in, my hardy life! Weave yet a soldier strong and full, for great campaigns  
 to come; Weave in red blood; weave sinews in, like ropes! the  
 senses, sight weave in! Weave lasting sure! weave day and night the weft, the  
 warp, incessant weave! tire not! (We know not what the use, O life! nor know the aim,  
 the end—nor really aught we know; But know the work, the need goes on, and shall go on—  
 the death-envelop'd march of peace as well as  
 war goes on;) For great campaigns of peace the same, the wiry threads  
 to weave; We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave.   [ begin page 340 ]ppp.00270.342.jpg

RACE OF VETERANS.

RACE of veterans! Race of victors! Race of the soil, ready for conflict! race of the conquer- 
 ing march! (No more credulity's race, abiding-temper'd race;) Race henceforth owning no law but the law of itself; Race of passion and the storm.

O SUN OF REAL PEACE.

O SUN of real peace! O hastening light! O free and extatic! O what I here, preparing, warble  
 for! O the sun of the world will ascend, dazzling, and take  
 his height—and you too, O my Ideal, will surely  
 ascend! O so amazing and broad—up there resplendent, dart- 
 ing and burning! O vision prophetic, stagger'd with weight of light! with  
 pouring glories! O lips of my soul, already becoming powerless! O ample and grand Presidentiads! Now the war, the  
 war is over! New history! new heroes! I project you! Visions of poets! only you really last! sweep on! sweep  
 on! O heights too swift and dizzy yet! O purged and luminous! you threaten me more than I  
 can stand! (I must not venture—the ground under my feet men- 
 aces me—it will not support me: O future too immense,)—O present, I return, while yet  
 I may, to you.

Table of Contents (1871)

Poems in this cluster

• As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario's Shore
• Pioneers! O Pioneers!
• Respondez!
• Turn, O Libertad
• Adieu to a Soldier
• As I Walk These Broad, Majestic Days
• Weave In, Weave In, My Hardy Life
• Race of Veterans
• O Sun of Real Peace

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