land and tide,
Some three days since on their own soil live-sprouting,
Now here their sweetness through
my room unfolding,
A bunch of orange buds by mail from Florida.
1888 1888-9
TWILIGHT
THE soft voluptuous opiate shades,
The sun just gone, the eager light dispell'd —
(I too will soon be
gone, dispell'd,)
A haze — nirwana — rest and night
— oblivion.
(1887) 1888-9
YOU LINGERING SPARSE LEAVES OF ME
YOU lingering sparse leaves of me on winter-nearing
boughs,
And I some well-shorn tree of field or orchard-
row;
You tokens diminute and lorn — (not now
the flush of May, or July clover-bloom — no
grain of August
now;)
You pallid banner-staves — you pennants value-
less — you overstay'd of time,
Yet me soul-dearest
leaves confirming all the rest,
The faithfulest — hardiest — last.
1887 1888-9
NOT MEAGRE, LATENT BOUGHS ALONE
NOT meagre, latent boughs alone, O songs! (scaly
and bare, like eagles' talons,)
But haply for some
sunny day (who knows?) some
future spring, some summer — bursting forth,
To verdant leaves, or sheltering
shade — to
nourishing fruit,
Apples and grapes — the stalwart limbs of trees
emerging — the fresh, free,
open air,
And love and faith, like scented roses blooming.
1887 1888-9
THE DEAD EMPEROR
TO-DAY, with bending head and eyes, thou, too, Columbia,
Less for the mighty crown laid low in sorrow
— less
for the Emperor,
Thy true condolence breathest, sendest out o'er many a salt
sea mile,
Mourning
a good old man — a faithful shepherd, patriot.
1888 1888-9
AS THE GREEK'S SIGNAL FLAME
AS the Greek's signal flame, by antique records told,
Rose from the hill-top, like applause and glory,
Welcoming in fame some special veteran, hero,
With rosy tinge reddening the land he'd served,
So I aloft from Mannahatta's ship-fringed shore,
Lift high a kindled brand for thee, Old Poet.
1887 1888-9
THE DISMANTLED SHIP
IN some unused lagoon, some nameless bay,
On sluggish, lonesome waters, anchor'd near the shore,
An
old, dismasted, gray and batter'd ship, disabled, done,
After free voyages to all the seas of earth, haul'd
up at last
and hawser'd tight,
Lies rusting, mouldering.
1888 1888-9
NOW PRECEDENT SONGS, FAREWELL
NOW precedent songs, farewell — by every
name farewell,
(Trains of a staggering line in many a strange
procession,
waggons,
From ups and downs — with intervals —
from elder years, mid-age, or youth,)
``In
Cabin'd Ships'', or ``Thee Old Cause'' or ``Poets to
Come''
Or ``Paumanok'', ``Song of Myself'', ``Calamus'',
or ``Adam'',
Or ``Beat! Beat! Drums!'' or ``To the Leaven'd
Soil
they Trod,''
Or ``Captain! My Captain!'' ``Kosmos'', ``Quicksand
Years'', or ``Thoughts'',
``Thou Mother
with thy Equal Brood'', and many, many
more unspecified,
From fibre heart of mine — from throat and
tongue
— (My life's hot pulsing blood,
The personal urge and form for me — not merely
paper, automatic
type and ink,)
Each song of mine — each utterance in the past
— having its long, long history,
Of life or