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,
[ begin page 26c ]ppp.00473.460.jpgAnd how now, or at any time, each serves the exquisite transition of Death.