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Apostroph

Apostroph.

O mater! O fils! O brood continental! O flowers of the prairies! O space boundless! O hum of mighty products! O you teeming cities! O so invincible, turbulent, 
 proud!
O race of the future! O women! O fathers! O you men of passion and the storm! O native power only! O beauty! O yourself! O God! O divine average! O you bearded roughs! O bards! O all those slum- 
 berers!
O arouse! the dawn-bird's throat sounds shrill! Do  
 you not hear the cock crowing?
O, as I walk'd the beach, I heard the mournful notes  
 foreboding a tempest—the low, oft-repeated  
 shriek of the diver, the long-lived loon;
  [ begin page 106 ]ppp.01500.114.jpg O I heard, and yet hear, angry thunder;—O you  
 sailors! O ships! make quick preparation!
O from his masterful sweep, the warning cry of the  
 eagle!
(Give way there, all! It is useless! Give up your  
 spoils;)
O sarcasms! Propositions! (O if the whole world  
 should prove indeed a sham, a sell!)
O I believe there is nothing real but America and  
 freedom!
O to sternly reject all except Democracy! O imperator! O who dare confront you and me? O to promulgate our own! O to build for that which  
 builds for mankind!
O feuillage! O North! O the slope drained by the  
 Mexican sea!
O all, all inseparable—ages, ages, ages! O a curse on him that would dissever this Union for  
 any reason whatever!
O climates, labors! O good and evil! O death! O you strong with iron and wood! O Personality! O the village or place which has the greatest man or  
 woman! even if it be only a few ragged huts;
O the city where women walk in public processions in  
 the streets, the same as the men;
O a wan and terrible emblem, by me adopted! O shapes arising! shapes of the future centuries! O muscle and pluck forever for me! O workmen and workwomen forever for me! O farmers and sailors! O drivers of horses forever  
 for me!
O I will make the new bardic list of trades and tools! O you coarse and wilful! I love you!   [ begin page 107 ]ppp.01500.115.jpg O South! O longings for my dear home! O soft and  
 sunny airs!
O pensive! O I must return where the palm grows  
 and the mocking-bird sings, or else I die!
O equality! O organic compacts! I am come to be  
 your born poet!
O whirl, contest, sounding and resounding! I am  
 your poet, because I am part of you;
O days by-gone! Enthusiasts! Antecedents! O vast preparations for These States! O years! O what is now being sent forward thousands of years  
 to come!
O mediums! O to teach! to convey the invisible faith! To promulge real things! to journey through all The  
 States!
O creation! O to-day! O laws! O unmitigated  
 adoration!
O for mightier broods of orators, artists, and singers! O for native songs! carpenter's, boatman's, plough- 
 man's songs! shoemaker's songs!
O haughtiest growth of time! O free and extatic! O what I, here, preparing, warble for! O you hastening light! O the sun of the world will  
 ascend, dazzling, and take his height—and you  
 too will ascend;
O so amazing and so broad! up there resplendent, 
 darting and burning;
O prophetic! O vision staggered with weight of light! 
 with pouring glories!
O copious! O hitherto unequalled! O Libertad! O compact! O union impossible to  
 dissever!
O my Soul! O lips becoming tremulous, powerless! O centuries, centuries yet ahead!   [ begin page 108 ]ppp.01500.116.jpg O voices of greater orators! I pause—I listen for  
 you!
O you States! Cities! defiant of all outside authority! 
 I spring at once into your arms! you I most  
 love!
O you grand Presidentiads! I wait for you! New history! New heroes! I project you! Visions of poets! only you really last! O sweep on! 
 sweep on!
O Death! O you striding there! O I cannot yet! O heights! O infinitely too swift and dizzy yet! O purged lumine! you threaten me more than I can  
 stand!
O present! I return while yet I may to you! O poets to come, I depend upon you!
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