And by the spells which ye vouchsafe to those your ministers
     in earnest,
I here personify and call my themes, to make them pass
     before ye.

Behold, America! (and thou, ineffable guest and sister!)
For thee come trooping up thy waters and thy lands;
Behold! thy fields and farms, thy far-off woods and mountains,
As in procession coming.

Behold, the sea itself,
And on its limitless, heaving breast, the ships;
See, where their white sails, bellying in the wind, speckle the
     green and blue,
See, the steamers coming and going, steaming in or out of
     port,
See, dusky and undulating, the long pennants of smoke.

Behold, in Oregon, far in the north and west,
Or in Maine, far in the north and east, they cheerful axemen,
Wielding all day their axes.

Behold, on the lakes, thy pilots at their wheels, thy oarsmen,
How the ash writhes under those muscular arms!

There by the furnace, and there by the anvil,
Behold thy sturdy blacksmiths swinging their sledges,
Overhand so steady, overhand they turn and fall with joyous
     clank,
Like a tumult of laughter.

Mark the spirit of invention everywhere, thy rapid patents,
Thy continual workshops, foundries, risen or rising,
See, from their chimneys how the tall flame-fires stream.

Mark, thy interminable farms, North, South,
Thy wealthy daughter-states, Eastern and Western,
The varied products of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri,
     Georgia, Texas, and the rest,
Thy limitless crops, grass, wheat, sugar, oil, corn,
     rice, hemp, hops,
Thy barns all fill'd, the endless freight-train and the
     bulging storehouse,
The grapes that ripen on thy vines, the apples in thy
     orchards,
Thy incalculable lumber, beef, pork, potatoes, thy coal,
     thy gold and silver,
The inexhaustible iron in thy mines.

All thine, O sacred Union!
Ships, farms, shops, barns factories, mines,
City and State, North, South, item and aggregate,
We dedicate, dread Mother, all to thee!

Protectress absolute, thou! bulwark of all!
For well we know that while thou givest each and all,
     (generous as God,)
Without thee neither all nor each, nor land, home,
Nor ship, nor mine, nor any here this day secure,
Nor aught, nor any day secure.

And thou, the Emblem waving over all!
Delicate beauty, a word to thee, (it may be salutary,)

Remember thou hast not always been as here to-day so
     comfortably ensovereign'd,
In other scenes than these have I observ'd thee flag,
Not quite so trim and whole and freshly blooming in folds
     of stainless silk,
But I have seen thee bunting, to tatters torn upon thy
     splinter'd staff,
Or clutch'd to some young color- bearer's breast with
     desperate hands,
Savagely struggled for, for life or death, fought over long,
'Mid cannons' thunder- crash and many a curse and groan
     and yell, and rifle-volleys cracking sharp,
And moving masses as wild demons surging, and lives as
     nothing risk'd,
For thy mere remnant grimed with dirt and smoke and
     sopp'd in blood,
For sake of that, my beauty, and that thou might'st dally
     as now secure up there,
Many a good man have I seen go under.

Now here and these and hence in peace, all thine, O flag!
And here and hence for thee, O universal Muse! and thou for
     them!
And here and hence O Union, all the work and workmen thine!
None separate from thee — henceforth One only, we
     and thou,
(For the blood of the children, what is it, only the blood maternal?
And lives and works, what are they all at last, except the
     roads to faith and death?)

While we rehearse our measureless wealth, it is for thee, dear
     Mother,
We own it all and several to-day indissoluble in thee;
Think not our chant, our show, merely for products gross or
     lucre — it is for thee,