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Cluster: Autumn Rivulets. (1881)

Table of Contents (1881–1882)

Poems in this cluster


AUTUMN RIVULETS.

AS CONSEQUENT, Etc.

AS consequent from store of summer rains, Or wayward rivulets in autumn flowing, Or many a herb-lined brook's reticulations, Or subterranean sea-rills making for the sea, Songs of continued years I sing. Life's ever-modern rapids first, (soon, soon to blend, With the old streams of death.) Some threading Ohio's farm-fields or the woods, Some down Colorado's cañons from sources of perpetual snow, Some half-hid in Oregon, or away southward in Texas, Some in the north finding their way to Erie, Niagara, Ottawa, Some to Atlantica's bays, and so to the great salt brine. In you whoe'er you are my book perusing, In I myself, in all the world, these currents flowing, All, all toward the mystic ocean tending. Currents for starting a continent new, Overtures sent to the solid out of the liquid, Fusion of ocean and land, tender and pensive waves, (Not safe and peaceful only, waves rous'd and ominous too, Out of the depths the storm's abysmic waves, who knows whence? Raging over the vast, with many a broken spar and tatter'd sail.) Or from the sea of Time, collecting vasting all, I bring, A windrow-drift of weeds and shells. O little shells, so curious-convolute, so limpid-cold and voiceless, Will you not little shells to the tympans of temples held, Murmurs and echoes still call up, eternity's music faint and far, Wafted inland, sent from Atlantica's rim, strains for the soul of the  
 prairies,
Whisper'd reverberations, chords for the ear of the West joyously  
 sounding,
Your tidings old, yet ever new and untranslatable, Infinitesimals out of my life, and many a life,   [ begin page 278 ]ppp.01663.284.jpg (For not my life and years alone I give—all, all I give,) These waifs from the deep, cast high and dry, Wash'd on America's shores?

THE RETURN OF THE HEROES.

1

FOR the lands and for these passionate days and for myself, Now I awhile retire to thee O soil of autumn fields, Reclining on thy breast, giving myself to thee, Answering the pulses of thy sane and equable heart, Tuning a verse for thee. O earth that hast no voice, confide to me a voice, O harvest of my lands—O boundless summer growths, O lavish brown parturient earth—O infinite teeming womb, A song to narrate thee.

2

Ever upon this stage, Is acted God's calm annual drama, Gorgeous processions, songs of birds, Sunrise that fullest feeds and freshens most the soul, The heaving sea, the waves upon the shore, the musical, strong  
 waves,
The woods, the stalwart trees, the slender, tapering trees, The liliput countless armies of the grass, The heat, the showers, the measureless pasturages, The scenery of the snows, the winds' free orchestra, The stretching light-hung roof of clouds, the clear cerulean and  
 the silvery fringes,
The high dilating stars, the placid beckoning stars, The moving flocks and herds, the plains and emerald meadows, The shows of all the varied lands and all the growths and products.

3

Fecund America—to-day, Thou art all over set in births and joys! Thou groan'st with riches, thy wealth clothes thee as a swathing- 
 garment,
Thou laughest loud with ache of great possessions, A myriad-twining life like interlacing vines binds all thy vast  
 demesne,
  [ begin page 279 ]ppp.01663.285.jpg As some huge ship freighted to water's edge thou ridest into  
 port,
As rain falls from the heaven and vapors rise from earth, so have  
 the precious values fallen upon thee and risen out of thee;
Thou envy of the globe! thou miracle! Thou, bathed, choked, swimming in plenty, Thou lucky Mistress of the tranquil barns, Thou Prairie Dame that sittest in the middle and lookest out upon  
 thy world, and lookest East and lookest West,
Dispensatress, that by a word givest a thousand miles, a million  
 farms, and missest nothing,
Thou all-acceptress—thou hospitable, (thou only art hospitable as  
 God is hospitable.)

4

When late I sang sad was my voice, Sad were the shows around me with deafening noises of hatred  
 and smoke of war;
In the midst of the conflict, the heroes, I stood, Or pass'd with slow step through the wounded and dying.
But now I sing not war, Nor the measur'd march of soldiers, nor the tents of camps, Nor the regiments hastily coming up deploying in line of battle; No more the sad, unnatural shows of war. Ask'd room those flush'd immortal ranks, the first forth-stepping  
 armies?
Ask room alas the ghastly ranks, the armies dread that follow'd.
(Pass, pass, ye proud brigades, with your tramping sinewy legs, With your shoulders young and strong, with your knapsacks and  
 your muskets;
How elate I stood and watch'd you, where starting off you  
 march'd.
Pass—then rattle drums again, For an army heaves in sight, O another gathering army, Swarming, trailing on the rear, O you dread accruing army, O you regiments so piteous, with your mortal diarrhoea, with your  
 fever,
O my land's maim'd darlings, with the plenteous bloody bandage  
 and the crutch,
Lo, your pallid army follows.)
  [ begin page 280 ]ppp.01663.286.jpg

5

But on these days of brightness, On the far-stretching beauteous landscape, the roads and lanes,  
 the high-piled farm-wagons, and the fruits and barns,
Should the dead intrude?
Ah the dead to me mar not, they fit well in Nature, They fit very well in the landscape under the trees and grass, And along the edge of the sky in the horizon's far margin. Nor do I forget you Departed, Nor in winter or summer my lost ones, But most in the open air as now when my soul is rapt and at  
 peace, like pleasing phantoms,
Your memories rising glide silently by me.

6

I saw the day the return of the heroes, (Yet the heroes never surpass'd shall never return, Them that day I saw not.) I saw the interminable corps, I saw the processions of armies, I saw them approaching, defiling by with divisions, Streaming northward, their work done, camping awhile in clusters  
 of mighty camps.
No holiday soldiers—youthful, yet veterans, Worn, swart, handsome, strong, of the stock of homestead and  
 workshop,
Harden'd of many a long campaign and sweaty march, Inured on many a hard-fought bloody field.
A pause—the armies wait, A million flush'd embattled conquerors wait, The world too waits, then soft as breaking night and sure as dawn, They melt, they disappear. Exult O lands! victorious lands! Not there your victory on those red shuddering fields, But here and hence your victory. Melt, melt away ye armies—disperse ye blue-clad soldiers, Resolve ye back again, give up for good your deadly arms, Other the arms the fields henceforth for you, or South or North, With saner wars, sweet wars, life-giving wars.
  [ begin page 281 ]ppp.01663.287.jpg

7

Loud O my throat, and clear O soul! The season of thanks and the voice of full-yielding, The chant of joy and power for boundless fertility. All till'd and untill'd fields expand before me, I see the true arenas of my race, or first or last, Man's innocent and strong arenas. I see the heroes at other toils, I see well-wielded in their hands the better weapons. I see where the Mother of All, With full-spanning eye gazes forth, dwells long, And counts the varied gathering of the products. Busy the far, the sunlit panorama, Prairie, orchard, and yellow grain of the North, Cotton and rice of the South and Louisianian cane, Open unseeded fallows, rich fields of clover and timothy, Kine and horses feeding, and droves of sheep and swine, And many a stately river flowing and many a jocund brook, And healthy uplands with herby-perfumed breezes, And the good green grass, that delicate miracle the ever-recurring  
 grass.

8

Toil on heroes! harvest the products! Not alone on those warlike fields the Mother of All, With dilated form and lambent eyes watch'd you. Toil on heroes! toil well! handle the weapons well! The Mother of All, yet here as ever she watches you. Well-pleased America thou beholdest, Over the fields of the West those crawling monsters, The human-divine inventions, the labor-saving implements; Beholdest moving in every direction imbued as with life the  
 revolving hay-rakes,
The steam-power reaping-machines and the horse-power machines, The engines, thrashers of grain and cleaners of grain, well sepa- 
 rating the straw, the nimble work of the patent pitchfork,
Beholdest the newer saw-mill, the southern cotton-gin, and the  
 rice-cleanser.
  [ begin page 282 ]ppp.01663.288.jpg Beneath thy look O Maternal, With these and else and with their own strong hands the heroes  
 harvest.
All gather and all harvest, Yet but for thee O Powerful, not a scythe might swing as now in  
 security,
Not a maize-stalk dangle as now its silken tassels in peace.
Under thee only they harvest, even but a wisp of hay under thy  
 great face only,
Harvest the wheat of Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, every barbed spear  
 under thee,
Harvest the maize of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, each ear in  
 its light-green sheath,
Gather the hay to its myriad mows in the odorous tranquil barns, Oats to their bins, the white potato, the buckwheat of Michigan,  
 to theirs;
Gather the cotton in Mississippi or Alabama, dig and hoard the  
 golden the sweet potato of Georgia and the Carolinas,
Clip the wool of California or Pennsylvania, Cut the flax in the Middle States, or hemp or tobacco in the  
 Borders,
Pick the pea and the bean, or pull apples from the trees or bunches  
 of grapes from the vines,
Or aught that ripens in all these States or North or South, Under the beaming sun and under thee.

THERE WAS A CHILD WENT FORTH.

THERE was a child went forth every day, And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became, And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part  
 of the day,
Or for many years or stretching cycles of years.
The early lilacs became part of this child, And grass and white and red morning-glories, and white and red  
 clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird,
And the Third-month lambs and the sow's pink-faint litter, and  
 the mare's foal and the cow's calf,
And the noisy brood of the barnyard or by the mire of the pond- 
 side,
  [ begin page 283 ]ppp.01663.289.jpg And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there, and  
 the beautiful curious liquid,
And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads, all became part  
 of him.
The field-sprouts of Fourth-month and Fifth-month became part  
 of him,
Winter-grain sprouts and those of the light-yellow corn, and the  
 esculent roots of the garden,
And the apple-trees cover'd with blossoms and the fruit afterward,  
 and wood-berries, and the commonest weeds by the road,
And the old drunkard staggering home from the outhouse of the  
 tavern whence he had lately risen,
And the schoolmistress that pass'd on her way to the school, And the friendly boys that pass'd, and the quarrelsome boys, And the tidy and fresh-cheek'd girls, and the barefoot negro boy  
 and girl,
And all the changes of city and country wherever he went.
His own parents, he that had father'd him and she that had con- 
 ceiv'd him in her womb and birth'd him,
They gave this child more of themselves than that, They gave him afterward every day, they became part of him.
The mother at home quietly placing the dishes on the supper- 
 table,
The mother with mild words, clean her cap and gown, a whole- 
 some odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by,
The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, anger'd, unjust, The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty lure, The family usages, the language, the company, the furniture, the  
 yearning and swelling heart,
Affection that will not be gainsay'd, the sense of what is real, the  
 thought if after all it should prove unreal,
The doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time, the curious  
 whether and how,
Whether that which appears so is so, or is it all flashes and specks? Men and women crowding fast in the streets, if they are not flashes  
 and specks what are they?
The streets themselves and the façades of houses, and goods in  
 the windows,
Vehicles, teams, the heavy-plank'd wharves, the huge crossing at  
 the ferries,
The village on the highland seen from afar at sunset, the river  
 between,
  [ begin page 284 ]ppp.01663.290.jpg Shadows, aureola and mist, the light falling on roofs and gables of  
 white or brown two miles off,
The schooner near by sleepily dropping down the tide, the little  
 boat slack-tow'd astern,
The hurrying tumbling waves, quick-broken crests, slapping, The strata of color'd clouds, the long bar of maroon-tint away  
 solitary by itself, the spread of purity it lies motionless in,
The horizon's edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance of salt  
 marsh and shore mud,
These became part of that child who went forth every day, and  
 who now goes, and will always go forth every day.

OLD IRELAND.

FAR hence amid an isle of wondrous beauty, Crouching over a grave an ancient sorrowful mother, Once a queen, now lean and tatter'd seated on the ground, Her old white hair drooping dishevel'd round her shoulders, At her feet fallen an unused royal harp, Long silent, she too long silent, mourning her shrouded hope and  
 heir,
Of all the earth her heart most full of sorrow because most full of  
 love.
Yet a word ancient mother, You need crouch there no longer on the cold ground with fore- 
 head between your knees,
O you need not sit there veil'd in your old white hair so dishevel'd, For know you the one you mourn is not in that grave, It was an illusion, the son you love was not really dead, The Lord is not dead, he is risen again young and strong in  
 another country,
Even while you wept there by your fallen harp by the grave, What you wept for was translated, pass'd from the grave, The winds favor'd and the sea sail'd it, And now with rosy and new blood, Moves to-day in a new country.

THE CITY DEAD-HOUSE.

BY the city dead-house by the gate, As idly sauntering wending my way from the clangor, I curious pause, for lo, an outcast form, a poor dead prostitute  
  brought,
  [ begin page 285 ]ppp.01663.291.jpg Her corpse they deposit unclaim'd, it lies on the damp brick  
 pavement,
The divine woman, her body, I see the body, I look on it alone, That house once full of passion and beauty, all else I notice not, Nor stillness so cold, nor running water from faucet, nor odors  
 morbific impress me,
But the house alone—that wondrous house—that delicate fair  
 house—that ruin!
That immortal house more than all the rows of dwellings ever  
 built!
Or white-domed capitol with majestic figure surmounted, or all  
 the old high-spired cathedrals,
That little house alone more than them all—poor, desperate  
 house!
Fair, fearful wreck—tenement of a soul—itself a soul, Unclaim'd, avoided house—take one breath from my tremulous  
 lips,
Take one tear dropt aside as I go for thought of you, Dead house of love—house of madness and sin, crumbled,  
 crush'd,
House of life, erewhile talking and laughing—but ah, poor house,  
 dead even then,
Months, years, an echoing, garnish'd house—but dead, dead,  
 dead.

THIS COMPOST.

1

SOMETHING startles me where I thought I was safest, I withdraw from the still woods I loved, I will not go now on the pastures to walk, I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea, I will not touch my flesh to the earth as to other flesh to renew me. O how can it be that the ground itself does not sicken? How can you be alive you growths of spring? How can you furnish health you blood of herbs, roots, orchards,  
 grain?
Are they not continually putting distemper'd corpses within you? Is not every continent work'd over and over with sour dead?
Where have you disposed of their carcasses? Those drunkards and gluttons of so many generations?   [ begin page 286 ]ppp.01663.292.jpg Where have you drawn off all the foul liquid and meat? I do not see any of it upon you to-day, or perhaps I am deceiv'd, I will run a furrow with my plough, I will press my spade through  
 the sod and turn it up underneath,
I am sure I shall expose some of the foul meat.

2

Behold this compost! behold it well! Perhaps every mite has once form'd part of a sick person—yet  
 behold!
The grass of spring covers the prairies, The bean bursts noiselessly through the mould in the garden, The delicate spear of the onion pierces upward, The apple-buds cluster together on the apple-branches, The resurrection of the wheat appears with pale visage out of its  
 graves,
The tinge awakes over the willow-tree and the mulberry-tree, The he-birds carol mornings and evenings while the she-birds sit  
 on their nests,
The young of poultry break through the hatch'd eggs, The new-born of animals appear, the calf is dropt from the cow,  
 the colt from the mare,
Out of its little hill faithfully rise the potato's dark green leaves, Out of its hill rises the yellow maize-stalk, the lilacs bloom in the  
 dooryards,
The summer growth is innocent and disdainful above all those  
 strata of sour dead.
What chemistry! That the winds are really not infectious, That this is no cheat, this transparent green-wash of the sea  
 which is so amorous after me,
That it is safe to allow it to lick my naked body all over with its  
 tongues,
That it will not endanger me with the fevers that have deposited  
 themselves in it,
That all is clean forever and forever, That the cool drink from the well tastes so good, That blackberries are so flavorous and juicy, That the fruits of the apple-orchard and the orange-orchard, that  
 melons, grapes, peaches, plums, will none of them poison me,
That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any disease, Though probably every spear of grass rises out of what was once  
 a catching disease.
  [ begin page 287 ]ppp.01663.293.jpg Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient, It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions, It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless  
 successions of diseas'd corpses,
It distills such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor, It renews with such unwitting looks its prodigal, annual, sumptu- 
 ous crops,
It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings  
 from them at last.

TO A FOIL'D EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONAIRE.

COURAGE yet, my brother or my sister! Keep on—Liberty is to be subserv'd whatever occurs; That is nothing that is quell'd by one or two failures, or any num- 
 ber of failures,
Or by the indifference or ingratitude of the people, or by any  
 unfaithfulness,
Or the show of the tushes of power, soldiers, cannon, penal statutes.
What we believe in waits latent forever through all the continents, Invites no one, promises nothing, sits in calmness and light, is  
 positive and composed, knows no discouragement,
Waiting patiently, waiting its time.
(Not songs of loyalty alone are these, But songs of insurrection also, For I am the sworn poet of every dauntless rebel the world over, And he going with me leaves peace and routine behind him, And stakes his life to be lost at any moment.) The battle rages with many a loud alarm and frequent advance  
 and retreat,
The infidel triumphs, or supposes he triumphs, The prison, scaffold, garroté, handcuffs, iron necklace and lead- 
 balls do their work,
The named and unnamed heroes pass to other spheres, The great speakers and writers are exiled, they lie sick in distant  
 lands,
The cause is asleep, the strongest throats are choked with their  
 own blood,
The young men droop their eyelashes toward the ground when  
 they meet;
But for all this Liberty has not gone out of the place, nor the  
 infidel enter'd into full possession.
  [ begin page 288 ]ppp.01663.294.jpg When liberty goes out of a place it is not the first to go, nor the  
 second or third to go,
It waits for all the rest to go, it is the last.
When there are no more memories of heroes and martyrs, And when all life and all the souls of men and women are dis- 
 charged from any part of the earth,
Then only shall liberty or the idea of liberty be discharged from  
 that part of the earth,
And the infidel come into full possession.
Then courage European revolter, revoltress! For till all ceases neither must you cease. I do not know what you are for, (I do not know what I am for  
 myself, nor what any thing is for,)
But I will search carefully for it even in being foil'd, In defeat, poverty, misconception, imprisonment—for they too  
 are great.
Did we think victory great? So it is—but now it seems to me, when it cannot be help'd, that  
 defeat is great,
And that death and dismay are great.

UNNAMED LANDS.

NATIONS ten thousand years before these States, and many times  
 ten thousand years before these States,
Garner'd clusters of ages that men and women like us grew up and  
 travel'd their course and pass'd on,
What vast-built cities, what orderly republics, what pastoral tribes  
 and nomads,
What histories, rulers, heroes, perhaps transcending all others, What laws, customs, wealth, arts, traditions, What sort of marriage, what costumes, what physiology and  
 phrenology,
What of liberty and slavery among them, what they thought of  
 death and the soul,
Who were witty and wise, who beautiful and poetic, who brutish  
 and undevelop'd,
Not a mark, not a record remains—and yet all remains.
O I know that those men and women were not for nothing, any  
 more than we are for nothing,
  [ begin page 289 ]ppp.01663.295.jpg I know that they belong to the scheme of the world every bit as  
 much as we now belong to it.
Afar they stand, yet near to me they stand, Some with oval countenances learn'd and calm, Some naked and savage, some like huge collections of insects, Some in tents, herdsmen, patriarchs, tribes, horsemen, Some prowling through woods, some living peaceably on farms,  
 laboring, reaping, filling barns,
Some traversing paved avenues, amid temples, palaces, factories,  
 libraries, shows, courts, theatres, wonderful monuments.
Are those billions of men really gone? Are those women of the old experience of the earth gone? Do their lives, cities, arts, rest only with us? Did they achieve nothing for good for themselves? I believe of all those men and women that fill'd the unnamed  
 lands, every one exists this hour here or elsewhere, invisible  
 to us,
In exact proportion to what he or she grew from in life, and out  
 of what he or she did, felt, became, loved, sinn'd, in life.
I believe that was not the end of those nations or any person of  
 them, any more than this shall be the end of my nation, or  
 of me;
Of their languages, governments, marriage, literature, products,  
 games, wars, manners, crimes, prisons, slaves, heroes, poets,
I suspect their results curiously await in the yet unseen world,  
 counterparts of what accrued to them in the seen world,
I suspect I shall meet them there, I suspect I shall there find each old particular of those unnamed  
 lands.

SONG OF PRUDENCE.

MANHATTAN'S streets I saunter'd pondering, On Time, Space, Reality—on such as these, and abreast with  
 them Prudence.
The last explanation always remains to be made about prudence, Little and large alike drop quietly aside from the prudence that  
 suits immortality.
The soul is of itself, All verges to it, all has reference to what ensues,   [ begin page 290 ]ppp.01663.296.jpg All that a person does, says, thinks, is of consequence, Not a move can a man or woman make, that affects him or her in  
 a day, month, any part of the direct lifetime, or the hour  
 of death,
But the same affects him or her onward afterward through the  
 indirect lifetime.
The indirect is just as much as the direct, The spirit receives from the body just as much as it gives to the  
 body, if not more.
Not one word or deed, not venereal sore, discoloration, privacy  
 of the onanist,
Putridity of gluttons or rum-drinkers, peculation, cunning, betrayal,  
 murder, seduction, prostitution,
But has results beyond death as really as before death.
Charity and personal force are the only investments worth any  
 thing.
No specification is necessary, all that a male or female does, that is  
 vigorous, benevolent, clean, is so much profit to him or her,
In the unshakable order of the universe and through the whole  
 scope of it forever.
Who has been wise receives interest, Savage, felon, President, judge, farmer, sailor, mechanic, literat,  
 young, old, it is the same,
The interest will come round—all will come round.
Singly, wholly, to affect now, affected their time, will forever affect,  
 all of the past and all of the present and all of the future,
All the brave actions of war and peace, All help given to relatives, strangers, the poor, old, sorrowful, young  
 children, widows, the sick, and to shunn'd persons,
All self-denial that stood steady and aloof on wrecks, and saw  
 others fill the seats of the boats,
All offering of substance or life for the good old cause, or for a  
 friend's sake, or opinion's sake,
All pains of enthusiasts scoff'd at by their neighbors, All the limitless sweet love and precious suffering of mothers, All honest men baffled in strifes recorded or unrecorded, All the grandeur and good of ancient nations whose fragments we  
 inherit,
All the good of the dozens of ancient nations unknown to us by  
 name, date, location,
  [ begin page 291 ]ppp.01663.297.jpg All that was ever manfully begun, whether it succeeded or no, All suggestions of the divine mind of man or the divinity of his  
 mouth, or the shaping of his great hands,
All that is well thought or said this day on any part of the globe,  
 or on any of the wandering stars, or on any of the fix'd  
 stars, by those there as we are here,
All that is henceforth to be thought or done by you whoever you  
 are, or by any one,
These inure, have inured, shall inure, to the identities from which  
 they sprang, or shall spring.
Did you guess any thing lived only its moment? The world does not so exist, no parts palpable or impalpable so  
 exist,
No consummation exists without being from some long previous  
 consummation, and that from some other,
Without the farthest conceivable one coming a bit nearer the  
 beginning than any.
Whatever satisfies souls is true; Prudence entirely satisfies the craving and glut of souls, Itself only finally satisfies the soul, The soul has that measureless pride which revolts from every lesson  
 but its own.
Now I breathe the word of the prudence that walks abreast with  
 time, space, reality,
That answers the pride which refuses every lesson but its own.
What is prudence is indivisible, Declines to separate one part of life from every part, Divides not the righteous from the unrighteous or the living from  
 the dead,
Matches every thought or act by its correlative, Knows no possible forgiveness or deputed atonement, Knows that the young man who composedly peril'd his life and  
 lost it has done exceedingly well for himself without doubt,
That he who never peril'd his life, but retains it to old age in  
 riches and ease, has probably achiev'd nothing for himself  
 worth mentioning,
Knows that only that person has really learn'd who has learn'd to  
 prefer results,
Who favors body and soul the same, Who perceives the indirect assuredly following the direct, Who in his spirit in any emergency whatever neither hurries nor  
 avoids death.
  [ begin page 292 ]ppp.01663.298.jpg

THE SINGER IN THE PRISON.

1

O sight of pity, shame and dole! O fearful thought—a convict soul. RANG the refrain along the hall, the prison, Rose to the roof, the vaults of heaven above, Pouring in floods of melody in tones so pensive sweet and strong  
 the like whereof was never heard,
Reaching the far-off sentry and the armed guards, who ceas'd their  
 pacing,
Making the hearer's pulses stop for ecstasy and awe.

2

The sun was low in the west one winter day, When down a narrow aisle amid the thieves and outlaws of the  
 land,
(There by the hundreds seated, sear-faced murderers, wily counter- 
 feiters,
Gather'd to Sunday church in prison walls, the keepers round, Plenteous, well-armed, watching with vigilant eyes,) Calmly a lady walk'd holding a little innocent child by either  
 hand,
Whom seating on their stools beside her on the platform, She, first preluding with the instrument a low and musical prelude, In voice surpassing all, sang forth a quaint old hymn.
A soul confined by bars and bands, Cries, help! O help! and wrings her hands, Blinded her eyes, bleeding her breast, Nor pardon finds, nor balm of rest. Ceaseless she paces to and fro, O heart-sick days! O nights of woe! Nor hand of friend, nor loving face, Nor favor comes, nor word of grace. It was not I that sinn'd the sin, The ruthless body dragg'd me in; Though long I strove courageously, The body was too much for me. Dear prison'd soul bear up a space, For soon or late the certain grace;   [ begin page 293 ]ppp.01663.299.jpg To set thee free and bear thee home, The heavenly pardoner death shall come. Convict no more, nor shame, nor dole! Depart—a God-enfranchis'd soul!

3

The singer ceas'd, One glance swept from her clear calm eyes o'er all those upturn'd  
 faces,
Strange sea of prison faces, a thousand varied, crafty, brutal,  
 seam'd and beauteous faces,
Then rising, passing back along the narrow aisle between them, While her gown touch'd them rustling in the silence, She vanish'd with her children in the dusk.
While upon all, convicts and armed keepers ere they stirr'd, (Convict forgetting prison, keeper his loaded pistol,) A hush and pause fell down a wondrous minute, With deep half-stifled sobs and sound of bad men bow'd and  
 moved to weeping,
And youth's convulsive breathings, memories of home, The mother's voice in lullaby, the sister's care, the happy childhood, The long-pent spirit rous'd to reminiscence; A wondrous minute then—but after in the solitary night, to many,  
 many there,
Years after, even in the hour of death, the sad refrain, the tune,  
 the voice, the words,
Resumed, the large calm lady walks the narrow aisle, The wailing melody again, the singer in the prison sings,
O sight of pity, shame and dole! O fearful thought—a convict soul.

WARBLE FOR LILAC-TIME.

WARBLE me now for joy of lilac-time, (returning in reminiscence,) Sort me O tongue and lips for Nature's sake, souvenirs of earliest  
 summer,
Gather the welcome signs, (as children with pebbles or stringing  
 shells,)
Put in April and May, the hylas croaking in the ponds, the elastic  
 air,
Bees, butterflies, the sparrow with its simple notes,   [ begin page 294 ]ppp.01663.300.jpg Blue-bird and darting swallow, nor forget the high-hole flashing  
 his golden wings,
The tranquil sunny haze, the clinging smoke, the vapor, Shimmer of waters with fish in them, the cerulean above, All that is jocund and sparkling, the brooks running, The maple woods, the crisp February days and the sugar-making, The robin where he hops, bright-eyed, brown-breasted, With musical clear call at sunrise, and again at sunset, Or flitting among the trees of the apple-orchard, building the nest  
 of his mate,
The melted snow of March, the willow sending forth its yellow- 
 green sprouts,
For spring-time is here! the summer is here! and what is this  
 in it and from it?
Thou, soul, unloosen'd—the restlessness after I know not what; Come, let us lag here no longer, let us be up and away! O if one could but fly like a bird! O to escape, to sail forth as in a ship! To glide with thee O soul, o'er all, in all, as a ship o'er the waters; Gathering these hints, the preludes, the blue sky, the grass, the  
 morning drops of dew,
The lilac-scent, the bushes with dark green heart-shaped leaves, Wood-violets, the little delicate pale blossoms called innocence, Samples and sorts not for themselves alone, but for their atmo- 
 sphere,
To grace the bush I love—to sing with the birds, A warble for joy of lilac-time, returning in reminiscence.

OUTLINES FOR A TOMB.

(G. P., Buried 1870.)

1

WHAT may we chant, O thou within this tomb? What tablets, outlines, hang for thee, O millionnaire? The life thou lived'st we know not, But that thou walk'dst thy years in barter, 'mid the haunts of  
 brokers,
Nor heroism thine, nor war, nor glory.

2

Silent, my soul, With drooping lids, as waiting, ponder'd, Turning from all the samples, monuments of heroes.   [ begin page 295 ]ppp.01663.301.jpg While through the interior vistas, Noiseless uprose, phantasmic, (as by night Auroras of the north,) Lambent tableaus, prophetic, bodiless scenes, Spiritual projections. In one, among the city streets a laborer's home appear'd, After his day's work done, cleanly, sweet-air'd, the gaslight burning, The carpet swept and a fire in the cheerful stove. In one, the sacred parturition scene, A happy painless mother birth'd a perfect child. In one, at a bounteous morning meal, Sat peaceful parents with contented sons. In one, by twos and threes, young people, Hundreds concentring, walk'd the paths and streets and roads, Toward a tall-domed school. In one a trio beautiful, Grandmother, loving daughter, loving daughter's daughter, sat, Chatting and sewing. In one, along a suite of noble rooms, 'Mid plenteous books and journals, paintings on the walls, fine  
 statuettes,
Were groups of friendly journeymen, mechanics young and old, Reading, conversing.
All, all the shows of laboring life, City and country, women's, men's and children's, Their wants provided for, hued in the sun and tinged for once  
 with joy,
Marriage, the street, the factory, farm, the house-room, lodging- 
 room,
Labor and toil, the bath, gymnasium, playground, library, college, The student, boy or girl, led forward to be taught, The sick cared for, the shoeless shod, the orphan father'd and  
 mother'd,
The hungry fed, the houseless housed; (The intentions perfect and divine, The workings, details, haply human.)

3

O thou within this tomb, From thee such scenes, thou stintless, lavish giver,   [ begin page 296 ]ppp.01663.302.jpg Tallying the gifts of earth, large as the earth, Thy name an earth, with mountains, fields and tides. Nor by your streams alone, you rivers, By you, your banks Connecticut, By you and all your teeming life old Thames, By you Potomac laving the ground Washington trod, by you  
 Patapsco,
You Hudson, you endless Mississippi—nor you alone, But to the high seas launch, my thought, his memory.

OUT FROM BEHIND THIS MASK.

(To Confront a Portrait.)

1

OUT from behind this bending rough-cut mask, These lights and shades, this drama of the whole, This common curtain of the face contain'd in me for me, in you  
 for you, in each for each,
(Tragedies, sorrows, laughter, tears—O heaven! The passionate teeming plays this curtain hid!) This glaze of God's serenest purest sky, This film of Satan's seething pit, This heart's geography's map, this limitless small continent, this  
 soundless sea;
Out from the convolutions of this globe, This subtler astronomic orb than sun or moon, than Jupiter, Venus,  
 Mars,
This condensation of the universe, (nay here the only universe, Here the idea, all in this mystic handful wrapt;) These burin'd eyes, flashing to you to pass to future time, To launch and spin through space revolving sideling, from these  
 to emanate,
To you whoe'er you are—a look.

2

A traveler of thoughts and years, of peace and war, Of youth long sped and middle age declining, (As the first volume of a tale perused and laid away, and this the  
 second,
Songs, ventures, speculations, presently to close,) Lingering a moment here and now, to you I opposite turn,   [ begin page 297 ]ppp.01663.303.jpg As on the road or at some crevice door by chance, or open'd win- 
 dow,
Pausing, inclining, baring my head, you specially I greet, To draw and clinch your soul for once inseparably with mine, Then travel travel on.

VOCALISM.

1

VOCALISM, measure, concentration, determination, and the divine  
 power to speak words;
Are you full-lung'd and limber-lipp'd from long trial? from vigor- 
 ous practice? from physique?
Do you move in these broad lands as broad as they? Come duly to the divine power to speak words? For only at last after many years, after chastity, friendship, procrea- 
 tion, prudence, and nakedness,
After treading ground and breasting river and lake, After a loosen'd throat, after absorbing eras, temperaments, races,  
 after knowledge, freedom, crimes,
After complete faith, after clarifyings, elevations, and removing  
 obstructions,
After these and more, it is just possible there comes to a man, a  
 woman, the divine power to speak words;
Then toward that man or that woman swiftly hasten all—none  
 refuse, all attend,
Armies, ships, antiquities, libraries, paintings, machines, cities,  
 hate, despair, amity, pain, theft, murder, aspiration, form in  
 close ranks,
They debouch as they are wanted to march obediently through  
 the mouth of that man or that woman.

2

O what is it in me that makes me tremble so at voices? Surely whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall  
 follow,
As the water follows the moon, silently, with fluid steps, anywhere  
 around the globe.
All waits for the right voices; Where is the practis'd and perfect organ? where is the develop'd  
 soul?
For I see every word utter'd thence has deeper, sweeter, new  
 sounds, impossible on less terms.
  [ begin page 298 ]ppp.01663.304.jpg I see brains and lips closed, tympans and temples unstruck, Until that comes which has the quality to strike and to unclose, Until that comes which has the quality to bring forth what lies  
 slumbering forever ready in all words.

TO HIM THAT WAS CRUCIFIED.

MY spirit to yours dear brother, Do not mind because many sounding your name do not under- 
 stand you,
I do not sound your name, but I understand you, I specify you with joy O my comrade to salute you, and to salute  
 those who are with you, before and since, and those to  
 come also,
That we all labor together transmitting the same charge and suc- 
 cession,
We few equals indifferent of lands, indifferent of times, We, enclosers of all continents, all castes, allowers of all theologies, Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men, We walk silent among disputes and assertions, but reject not the  
 disputers nor any thing that is asserted,
We hear the bawling and din, we are reach'd at by divisions, jeal- 
 ousies, recriminations on every side,
They close peremptorily upon us to surround us, my comrade, Yet we walk unheld, free, the whole earth over, journeying up and  
 down till we make our ineffaceable mark upon time and the  
 diverse eras,
Till we saturate time and eras, that the men and women of races,  
 ages to come, may prove brethren and lovers as we are.

YOU FELONS ON TRIAL IN COURTS.

YOU felons on trial in courts, You convicts in prison-cells, you sentenced assassins chain'd and  
 handcuff'd with iron,
Who am I too that I am not on trial or in prison? Me ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chain'd  
 with iron, or my ankles with iron?
You prostitutes flaunting over the trottoirs or obscene in your  
 rooms,
Who am I that I should call you more obscene than myself?
  [ begin page 299 ]ppp.01663.305.jpg O culpable! I acknowledge—I exposé! (O admirers, praise not me—compliment not me—you make  
 me wince,
I see what you do not—I know what you do not.)
Inside these breast-bones I lie smutch'd and choked, Beneath this face that appears so impassive hell's tides continually  
 run,
Lusts and wickedness are acceptable to me, I walk with delinquents with passionate love, I feel I am of them—I belong to those convicts and prostitutes  
 myself,
And henceforth I will not deny them—for how can I deny myself?

LAWS FOR CREATIONS.

LAWS for creations, For strong artists and leaders, for fresh broods of teachers and  
 perfect literats for America,
For noble savans and coming musicians.
All must have reference to the ensemble of the world, and the  
 compact truth of the world,
There shall be no subject too pronounced—all works shall illus- 
 trate the divine law of indirections.
What do you suppose creation is? What do you suppose will satisfy the soul, except to walk free and  
 own no superior?
What do you suppose I would intimate to you in a hundred ways,  
 but that man or woman is as good as God?
And that there is no God any more divine than Yourself? And that that is what the oldest and newest myths finally mean? And that you or any one must approach creations through such  
 laws?

TO A COMMON PROSTITUTE.

BE composed—be at ease with me—I am Walt Whitman, liberal  
 and lusty as Nature,
Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you, Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves to rustle  
 for you, do my words refuse to glisten and rustle for you.
  [ begin page 300 ]ppp.01663.306.jpg My girl I appoint with you an appointment, and I charge you that  
 you make preparation to be worthy to meet me,
And I charge you that you be patient and perfect till I come.
Till then I salute you with a significant look that you do not forget  
 me.

I WAS LOOKING A LONG WHILE.

I WAS looking a long while for Intentions, For a clew to the history of the past for myself, and for these  
 chants—and now I have found it,
It is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them I neither  
 accept nor reject,)
It is no more in the legends than in all else, It is in the present—it is this earth to-day, It is in Democracy—(the purport and aim of all the past,) It is the life of one man or one woman to-day—the average man  
 of to-day,
It is in languages, social customs, literatures, arts, It is in the broad show of artificial things, ships, machinery, poli- 
 tics, creeds, modern improvements, and the interchange of  
 nations,
All for the modern—all for the average man of to-day.

THOUGHT.

OF persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies, wealth, scholar- 
 ships, and the like;
(To me all that those persons have arrived at sinks away from  
 them, except as it results to their bodies and souls,
So that often to me they appear gaunt and naked, And often to me each one mocks the others, and mocks himself or  
 herself,
And of each one the core of life, namely happiness, is full of the  
 rotten excrement of maggots,
And often to me those men and women pass unwittingly the true  
 realities of life, and go toward false realities,
And often to me they are alive after what custom has served them,  
 but nothing more,
And often to me they are sad, hasty, unwaked sonnambules walk- 
 ing the dusk.)
  [ begin page 301 ]ppp.01663.307.jpg

MIRACLES.

WHY, who makes much of a miracle? As to me I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky, Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the  
 water,
Or stand under trees in the woods, Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night  
 with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest, Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car, Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon, Or animals feeding in the fields, Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air, Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet  
 and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring; These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles, The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.
To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, Every cubic inch of space is a miracle, Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the  
 same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.
To me the sea is a continual miracle, The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—  
 the ships with men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?

SPARKLES FROM THE WHEEL.

WHERE the city's ceaseless crowd moves on the livelong day, Withdrawn I join a group of children watching, I pause aside with  
 them.
By the curb toward the edge of the flagging, A knife-grinder works at his wheel sharpening a great knife, Bending over he carefully holds it to the stone, by foot and knee, With measur'd tread he turns rapidly, as he presses with light but  
 firm hand,
  [ begin page 302 ]ppp.01663.308.jpg Forth issue then in copious golden jets, Sparkles from the wheel.
The scene and all its belongings, how they seize and affect me, The sad sharp-chinn'd old man with worn clothes and broad  
 shoulder-band of leather,
Myself effusing and fluid, a phantom curiously floating, now here  
 absorb'd and arrested,
The group, (an unminded point set in a vast surrounding,) The attentive, quiet children, the loud, proud, restive base of the  
 streets,
The low hoarse purr of the whirling stone, the light-press'd blade, Diffusing, dropping, sideways-darting, in tiny showers of gold, Sparkles from the wheel.

TO A PUPIL.

IS reform needed? is it through you? The greater the reform needed, the greater the Personality you  
 need to accomplish it.
You! do you not see how it would serve to have eyes, blood,  
 complexion, clean and sweet?
Do you not see how it would serve to have such a body and soul  
 that when you enter the crowd an atmosphere of desire  
 and command enters with you, and every one is impress'd  
 with your Personality?
O the magnet! the flesh over and over! Go, dear friend, if need be give up all else, and commence to-day  
 to inure yourself to pluck, reality, self-esteem, definiteness,  
 elevatedness,
Rest not till you rivet and publish yourself of your own Personality.

UNFOLDED OUT OF THE FOLDS.

UNFOLDED out of the folds of the woman man comes unfolded,  
 and is always to come unfolded,
Unfolded only out of the superbest woman of the earth is to come  
 the superbest man of the earth,
Unfolded out of the friendliest woman is to come the friendliest  
 man,
Unfolded only out of the perfect body of a woman can a man be  
 form'd of perfect body,
  [ begin page 303 ]ppp.01663.309.jpg Unfolded only out of the inimitable poems of woman can come  
 the poems of man, (only thence have my poems come;)
Unfolded out of the strong and arrogant woman I love, only  
 thence can appear the strong and arrogant man I love,
Unfolded by brawny embraces from the well-muscled woman I  
 love, only thence come the brawny embraces of the man,
Unfolded out of the folds of the woman's brain come all the folds  
 of the man's brain, duly obedient,
Unfolded out of the justice of the woman all justice is unfolded, Unfolded out of the sympathy of the woman is all sympathy; A man is a great thing upon the earth and through eternity, but  
 every jot of the greatness of man is unfolded out of  
 woman;
First the man is shaped in the woman, he can then be shaped in  
 himself.

WHAT AM I AFTER ALL.

WHAT am I after all but a child, pleas'd with the sound of my own  
 name? repeating it over and over;
I stand apart to hear—it never tires me.
To you your name also; Did you think there was nothing but two or three pronunciations  
 in the sound of your name?

KOSMOS.

WHO includes diversity and is Nature, Who is the amplitude of the earth, and the coarseness and sex- 
 uality of the earth, and the great charity of the earth, and  
 the equilibrium also,
Who has not look'd forth from the windows the eyes for nothing,  
 or whose brain held audience with messengers for nothing,
Who contains believers and disbelievers, who is the most majestic  
 lover,
Who holds duly his or her triune proportion of realism, spiritualism,  
 and of the aesthetic or intellectual,
Who having consider'd the body finds all its organs and parts  
 good,
Who, out of the theory of the earth and of his or her body under- 
 stands by subtle analogies all other theories,
The theory of a city, a poem, and of the large politics of these  
 States;
  [ begin page 304 ]ppp.01663.310.jpg Who believes not only in our globe with its sun and moon, but in  
 other globes with their suns and moons,
Who, constructing the house of himself or herself, not for a day  
 but for all time, sees races, eras, dates, generations,
The past, the future, dwelling there, like space, inseparable to- 
 gether.

OTHERS MAY PRAISE WHAT THEY LIKE.

OTHERS may praise what they like; But I, from the banks of the running Missouri, praise nothing in  
 art or aught else,
Till it has well inhaled the atmosphere of this river, also the  
 western prairie-scent,
And exudes it all again.

WHO LEARNS MY LESSON COMPLETE?

WHO learns my lesson complete? Boss, journeyman, apprentice, churchman and atheist, The stupid and the wise thinker, parents and offspring, merchant,  
 clerk, porter and customer,
Editor, author, artist, and schoolboy—draw nigh and commence; It is no lesson—it lets down the bars to a good lesson, And that to another, and every one to another still.
The great laws take and effuse without argument, I am of the same style, for I am their friend, I love them quits and quits, I do not halt and make salaams. I lie abstracted and hear beautiful tales of things and the reasons  
 of things,
They are so beautiful I nudge myself to listen.
I cannot say to any person what I hear—I cannot say it to myself  
 —it is very wonderful.
It is no small matter, this round and delicious globe moving so  
 exactly in its orbit for ever and ever, without one jolt or the  
 untruth of a single second,
I do not think it was made in six days, nor in ten thousand years,  
 nor ten billions of years,
Nor plann'd and built one thing after another as an architect  
 plans and builds a house.
  [ begin page 305 ]ppp.01663.311.jpg I do not think seventy years is the time of a man or woman, Nor that seventy millions of years is the time of a man or woman, Nor that years will ever stop the existence of me, or any one else. Is it wonderful that I should be immortal? as every one is im- 
 mortal;
I know it is wonderful, but my eyesight is equally wonderful, and  
 how I was conceived in my mother's womb is equally  
 wonderful,
And pass'd from a babe in the creeping trance of a couple of  
 summers and winters to articulate and walk—all this is  
 equally wonderful.
And that my soul embraces you this hour, and we affect each  
 other without ever seeing each other, and never perhaps to  
 see each other, is every bit as wonderful.
And that I can think such thoughts as these is just as wonderful, And that I can remind you, and you think them and know them  
 to be true, is just as wonderful.
And that the moon spins round the earth and on with the earth, is  
 equally wonderful,
And that they balance themselves with the sun and stars is equally  
 wonderful.

TESTS.

ALL submit to them where they sit, inner, secure, unapproachable  
 to analysis in the soul,
Not traditions, not the outer authorities are the judges, They are the judges of outer authorities and of all traditions, They corroborate as they go only whatever corroborates them- 
 selves, and touches themselves;
For all that, they have it forever in themselves to corroborate far  
 and near without one exception.

THE TORCH.

ON my Northwest coast in the midst of the night a fishermen's  
 group stands watching,
Out on the lake that expands before them, others are spearing  
 salmon,
The canoe, a dim shadowy thing, moves across the black water, Bearing a torch ablaze at the prow.
  [ begin page 306 ]ppp.01663.312.jpg

O STAR OF FRANCE.

1870-71.

O STAR of France, The brightness of thy hope and strength and fame, Like some proud ship that led the fleet so long, Beseems to-day a wreck driven by the gale, a mastless hulk, And 'mid its teeming madden'd half-drown'd crowds, Nor helm nor helmsman. Dim smitten star, Orb not of France alone, pale symbol of my soul, its dearest  
 hopes,
The struggle and the daring, rage divine for liberty, Of aspirations toward the far ideal, enthusiast's dreams of brother- 
 hood,
Of terror to the tyrant and the priest.
Star crucified—by traitors sold, Star panting o'er a land of death, heroic land, Strange, passionate, mocking, frivolous land. Miserable! yet for thy errors, vanities, sins, I will not now rebuke  
 thee,
Thy unexampled woes and pangs have quell'd them all, And left thee sacred.
In that amid thy many faults thou ever aimedst highly, In that thou wouldst not really sell thyself however great the price, In that thou surely wakedst weeping from thy drugg'd sleep, In that alone among thy sisters thou, giantess, didst rend the ones  
 that shamed thee,
In that thou couldst not, wouldst not, wear the usual chains, This cross, thy livid face, thy pierced hands and feet, The spear thrust in thy side.
O star! O ship of France, beat back and baffled long! Bear up O smitten orb! O ship continue on! Sure as the ship of all, the Earth itself, Product of deathly fire and turbulent chaos, Forth from its spasms of fury and its poisons, Issuing at last in perfect power and beauty, Onward beneath the sun following its course, So thee O ship of France!   [ begin page 307 ]ppp.01663.313.jpg Finish'd the days, the clouds dispel'd, The travail o'er, the long-sought extrication, When lo! reborn, high o'er the European world, (In gladness answering thence, as face afar to face, reflecting ours  
 Columbia,)
Again thy star O France, fair lustrous star, In heavenly peace, clearer, more bright than ever, Shall beam immortal.

THE OX-TAMER.

IN a far-away northern county in the placid pastoral region, Lives my farmer friend, the theme of my recitative, a famous  
 tamer of oxen,
There they bring him the three-year-olds and the four-year-olds to  
 break them,
He will take the wildest steer in the world and break him and  
 tame him,
He will go fearless without any whip where the young bullock  
 chafes up and down the yard,
The bullock's head tosses restless high in the air with raging eyes, Yet see you! how soon his rage subsides—how soon this tamer  
 tames him;
See you! on the farms hereabout a hundred oxen young and old,  
 and he is the man who has tamed them,
They all know him, all are affectionate to him; See you! some are such beautiful animals, so lofty looking; Some are buff-color'd, some mottled, one has a white line running  
 along his back, some are brindled,
Some have wide flaring horns (a good sign)—see you! the  
 bright hides,
See, the two with stars on their foreheads—see, the round bodies  
 and broad backs,
How straight and square they stand on their legs—what fine  
 sagacious eyes!
How they watch their tamer—they wish him near them—how  
 they turn to look after him!
What yearning expression! how uneasy they are when he moves  
 away from them;
Now I marvel what it can be he appears to them, (books, politics,  
 poems, depart—all else departs,)
I confess I envy only his fascination—my silent, illiterate friend, Whom a hundred oxen love there in his life on farms, In the northern county far, in the placid pastoral region.
  [ begin page 308 ]ppp.01663.314.jpg

AN OLD MAN'S THOUGHT OF SCHOOL.

For the Inauguration of a Public School, Camden, New Jersey, 1874.

AN old man's thought of school, An old man gathering youthful memories and blooms that youth  
 itself cannot.
Now only do I know you, O fair auroral skies—O morning dew upon the grass! And these I see, these sparkling eyes, These stores of mystic meaning, these young lives, Building, equipping like a fleet of ships, immortal ships, Soon to sail out over the measureless seas, On the soul's voyage. Only a lot of boys and girls? Only the tiresome spelling, writing, ciphering classes? Only a public school? Ah more, infinitely more; (As George Fox rais'd his warning cry, "Is it this pile of brick  
 and mortar, these dead floors, windows, rails, you call the  
 church?
Why this is not the church at all—the church is living, ever living  
 souls.")
And you America, Cast you the real reckoning for your present? The lights and shadows of your future, good or evil? To girlhood, boyhood look, the teacher and the school.

WANDERING AT MORN.

WANDERING at morn, Emerging from the night from gloomy thoughts, thee in my  
 thoughts,
Yearning for thee harmonious Union! thee, singing bird divine! Thee coil'd in evil times my country, with craft and black dismay,  
 with every meanness, treason thrust upon thee,
This common marvel I beheld—the parent thrush I watch'd feed- 
 ing its young,
The singing thrush whose tones of joy and faith ecstatic, Fail not to certify and cheer my soul.
  [ begin page 309 ]ppp.01663.315.jpg There ponder'd, felt I, If worms, snakes, loathsome grubs, may to sweet spiritual songs  
 be turn'd,
If vermin so transposed, so used and bless'd may be, Then may I trust in you, your fortunes, days, my country; Who knows but these may be the lessons fit for you? From these your future song may rise with joyous trills, Destin'd to fill the world.

ITALIAN MUSIC IN DAKOTA.

["The Seventeenth—the finest Regimental Band I ever heard."]

THROUGH the soft evening air enwinding all, Rocks, woods, fort, cannon, pacing sentries, endless wilds, In dulcet streams, in flutes' and cornets' notes, Electric, pensive, turbulent, artificial, (Yet strangely fitting even here, meanings unknown before, Subtler than ever, more harmony, as if born here, related here, Not to the city's fresco'd rooms, not to the audience of the opera  
 house,
Sounds, echoes, wandering strains, as really here at home, Sonnambula's innocent love, trios with Norma's anguish, And thy ecstatic chorus Poliuto;) Ray'd in the limpid yellow slanting sundown, Music, Italian music in Dakota.
While Nature, sovereign of this gnarl'd realm, Lurking in hidden barbaric grim recesses, Acknowledging rapport however far remov'd, (As some old root or soil of earth its last-born flower or fruit,) Listens well pleas'd.

WITH ALL THY GIFTS.

WITH all thy gifts America, Standing secure, rapidly tending, overlooking the world, Power, wealth, extent, vouchsafed to thee—with these and like  
 of these vouchsafed to thee,
What if one gift thou lackest? (the ultimate human problem never  
 solving,)
The gift of perfect women fit for thee—what if that gift of gifts  
 thou lackest?
The towering feminine of thee? the beauty, health, completion,  
 fit for thee?
The mothers fit for thee?
  [ begin page 310 ]ppp.01663.316.jpg

MY PICTURE-GALLERY.

IN a little house keep I pictures suspended, it is not a fix'd house, It is round, it is only a few inches from one side to the other; Yet behold, it has room for all the shows of the world, all memo- 
 ries!
Here the tableaus of life, and here the groupings of death; Here, do you know this? this is cicerone himself, With finger rais'd he points to the prodigal pictures.

THE PRAIRIE STATES.

A NEWER garden of creation, no primal solitude, Dense, joyous, modern, populous millions, cities and farms, With iron interlaced, composite, tied, many in one, By all the world contributed—freedom's and law's and thrift's  
 society,
The crown and teeming paradise, so far, of time's accumulations, To justify the past.

Table of Contents (1881–1882)

Poems in this cluster


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