LONG, LONG HENCE

AFTER a long, long course, hundreds of years, denials,
Accumulations, rous'd love and joy and thought,
Hopes, wishes, aspirations, ponderings, victories, myriads of
     readers,
Coating, compassing, covering — after ages' and ages'
     encrustations,
Then only may these songs reach fruition.

1891 1891-2

BRAVO, PARIS EXPOSITION!

ADD to your show, before you close it, France,
With all the rest, visible, concrete, temples, towers, goods,
     machines and ores,
Our sentiment wafted from many million heart-throbs,
     ethereal but solid,

(We grand-sons and great-grand-sons do not forget your
     grand-sires,)
From fifty Nations and nebulous Nations, compacted, sent
     oversea to-day,
America's applause, love, memories and good-will.

1889 1891-
2

INTERPOLATION SOUNDS

(General Philip Sheridan was buried at the Cathedral, Washington, D.C., August, 1888, with all the pomp, music, and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic service.)

OVER and through the burial chant,
Organ and solemn service, sermon, bending priests,
To me come interpolation sounds not in the show — plainly
     to me, crowding up the aisle and from the window,
Of sudden battle's hurry and harsh noises — war's grim game
     to sight and ear in earnest;
The scout call'd up and forward — the general mounted and
     his aids around him — the new-brought word — the
     instantaneous order issued;
The rifle crack — the cannon thud — the rushing forth of men
     from their tents;
The clank of cavalry — the strange celerity of forming ranks
     — the slender bugle note;
The sound of horses' hoofs departing — saddles, arms,
     accoutrements.³

"In the grand constellation of five or six names. under Lincoln's Presidency, that history will bear for ages in her firmament as marking the last life-throbs of secession, and beaming on its dying gasps, Sheridan's will be bright. One consideration rising out of the now dead soldier's example as it passes my mind, is worth taking notice of. If the war had continued any long time these States, in my opinion, would have shown and proved the most conclusive military talents ever evinced by any nation on earth. That they possess'd a rank and file ahead of all other known in points of quality and limitlessness of number are easily admitted. But we have, too, the eligibility of organizing, handling and officering equal to the other. These two, with modern arms, transportation and inventive American genius, would make the United States with earnestness, not only able to stand the whole world, but conquer that world united against us."

1888 1891-2

TO THE SUNSET BREEZE

AH, whispering, something again, unseen,
Where late this heated day thou enterest at my window, door,
Thou, laving, tempering all, cool-freshing, gently vitalizing
Me, old, alone, sick, weak-down, melted-worn with sweat;
Thou, nestling, folding close and firm yet soft, companion
     better than talk, book, art,
(Thou hast, O Nature! elements! utterance to my heart beyond
     the rest — and this is of them,)
So sweet thy primitive taste to breathe within — thy soothing
     fingers on my face and hands,
Thou, messenger-magical strange bringer to body and spirit
     of me,
(Distances balk'd — occult medicines penetrating me from head
     to foot,)
I feel the sky, the prairies vast — I feel the mighty northern
     lakes,
I feel the ocean and the forest — somehow I feel the globe
     itself swift-swimming in space;
Thou blown from lips so loved, now gone — haply from endless
     store, God-sent,
(For thou art spiritual, Godly, most of all known to my
     sense,)
Minister to speak to me, here and now, what word has never
     told, and cannot tell,
Art thou not universal concrete's distillation? Law's, all
     Astronomy's last refinement?
Hast thou no soul? Can I not know, identify thee?

1890 1891-2

OLD CHANTS

    AN