O to promulgate our own! O to build for that which build
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 climate, 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!
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, ploughman'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!
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!
1860
O SUN OF REAL PEACE
O sun of real peace! O hastening light!O free and extatic! O what I here, preparing, warble for!
O the sun of the world will ascend, dazzling, and take his
height — and you too, O my Ideal will surely ascend!
O so amazing and broad — up there resplendent, darting and
burning!
O vision prophetic, stagger'd with weight of light! with
pouring glories!
O lips of my soul, already becoming powerless!
O ample and grand Presidentiads! Now the war, the war is
over!
New history! new heroes! I project you!
Visions of poets! only you really last! sweep on! sweep on!
O heights too swift and dizzy yet!
O purged and luminous! you threaten me more than I can
stand!
(I must not venture — the ground under my feet menaces me —
it will not support me:
O future too immense,) — O present, I return, while yet I may,
to you.
1860
[SO FAR AND SO FAR, AND ON TOWARD THE END]
So far, and so far, and on toward the end,Singing what is sung in this book, from the irresistible
impulses of me;
But whether I continue beyond this book, to maturity,
Whether I shall dart forth the true rays, the ones that wait
unfired,
(Did you think the sun was shining its brightest?
No — it has not yet fully risen;)
Whether I shall complete what is here started,
Whether I shall attain my own height, to justify these, yet
unfinished,
Whether I shall make the Poem of the New World,
transcending all others — depends, rich persons, upon you,
Depends, whoever you are now filling the current Presiden
tiad, upon you,
Upon you, Governor, Mayor, Congressman,
And you, contemporary America.
1860