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!

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

                      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!

                      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!

                      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!

                      Minstrels latent on the prairies!
(Shrouded bards of other lands, you may rest, you have
     done your work,)
Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp
     amid us,
                      Pioneers! O pioneers!

                      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
     enjoyment,
                      Pioneers! O pioneers!

                      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!

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

                      Till with sound of trumpet,
Far, far off the daybreak 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!

1865 1881

TO YOU

WHOEVER you are, I fear you are walking the walks
     of dreams,
I fear these supposed realities are to melt from under your
     feet and hands,
Even now your features, joys, speech, house, trade, manners,
     troubles, follies, costume, crimes, dissipate away from you,
Your true soul and body appear before me,
They stand forth out of affairs, out of commerce, shops, work,
     farms, clothes, the house, buying, selling, eating, drinking,
     suffering, dying.

Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be
     my poem,
I whisper with my lips close to your ear,
I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than
     you.

O I have been dilatory and dumb,
I should have made my way straight to you long ago,

I should have blabb'd nothing but you, I should have chanted
     nothing but you.

I will leave all and come and make the hymns of you,
None has understood you, but I understand you,
None has done justice to you, you have not done justice
     to yourself,
None but has found you imperfect, I only find no imperfection
     in you,
None but would subordinate you, I only am he who will never
     consent to subordinate you,
I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better,
     God, beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself.