LITMIR.BIZ

      Long, too long America,

      Travelling roads all even and peaceful you learn'd from joys and prosperity only,

      But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing, grappling with direst fate and recoiling not,

      And now to conceive and show to the world what your children en-masse really are.

      (For who except myself has yet conceiv'd what your children en-masse really are?).

      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.

      How solemn as one by one,

      As the ranks returning worn and sweaty, as the men file by where I stand,

      As the faces the masks appear, as I glance at the faces studying the masks

      (As I glance upward out of this page studying you, dear friend, whoever you are),

      How solemn the thought of my whispering soul to each in the ranks, and to you!

      I see behind each mask that wonder a kindred soul,

      O the bullet could never kill what you really are, dear friend,

      Nor the bayonet stab what you really are;

      The soul! yourself I see, great as any, good as the best,

      Waiting secure and content, which the bullet could never kill,

      Nor the bayonet stab O friend.

      Spirit whose work is done—spirit of dreadful hours!

      Ere departing fade from my eyes your forests of bayonets;

      Spirit of gloomiest fears and doubts (yet onward ever unfaltering pressing),

      Spirit of many a solemn day and many a savage scene—electric spirit,

      That with muttering voice through the war now closed, like a tireless phantom flitted,

      Rousing the land with breath of flame, while you beat and beat the drum,

      Now as the sound of the drum, hollow and harsh to the last, reverberates round me,

      As your ranks, your immortal ranks, return, return from the battles,

      As the muskets of the young men yet lean over their shoulders,

      As I look on the bayonets bristling over their shoulders,

      As those slanted bayonets, whole forests of them appearing in the distance, approach and pass on, returning homeward,

      Moving with steady motion, swaying to and fro to the right and left,

      Evenly, lightly rising and falling while the steps keep time;

      Spirit of hours I knew, all hectic red one day, but pale as death next day,

      Touch my mouth ere you depart, press my lips close,

      Leave me your pulses of rage—bequeath them to me—fill me with currents convulsive,

      Let them scorch and blister out of my chants when you are gone,

      Let them identify you to the future in these songs.

      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.

      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.

      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,

      As some huge ship freighted to water's edge thou ridest into port,

      As rain falls from the heaven and vapours rise from the 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,