Father

Cease, cease, my foolish babe,
What you are saying is sorrowful to me, much it displeases
     me;
Behold with the rest again I say, behold not banners and pennants aloft,
But the well-prepared pavements behold, and mark the solid-wall'd houses.

Banner and Pennant

Speak to the child O bard out of Manhattan,
To our children all, or north or south of Manhattan,
Point this day, leaving all the rest, to us over all — and yet we
     know not why,
For what are we, mere strips of cloth profiting nothing,
Only flapping in the wind?

Poet

I hear and see not strips of cloth alone,
I hear the tramp of armies, I hear the challenging sentry,
I hear the jubilant shouts of millions of men, I hear Liberty!
I hear the drums beat and the trumpets blowing,
I myself move abroad swift-rising flying then,
I use the wings of the land-bird and use the wings of the sea-bird,
     and look down as from a height,
I do not deny the precious results of peace, I see populous
     cities with wealth incalculable,
I see numberless farms, I see the farmers working in their
     fields or barns,
I see mechanics working, I see buildings everywhere founded,
     going up, or finish'd,
I see trains of cars swiftly speeding along railroad tracks
     drawn by the locomotives,
I see the stores, depots, of Boston, Baltimore, Charleston,
     New Orleans,
I see far in the West the immense area of grain, I dwell awhile
     hovering,

I pass to the lumber forests of the North, and again to the
     Southern plantation, and again to California;
Sweeping the whole I see the countless profit, the busy
     gatherings, earn'd wages,
See the Identity formed out of thirty-eight spacious and
     haughty States, (and many more to come,)
See forts on the shores of harbors, see ships sailing in and
     out;
Then over all, (aye! aye!) my little and lengthen'd pennant
     shaped like a sword,
Runs swiftly up indicating war and defiance — and now the
     halyards have rais'd it,
Side of my banner broad and blue, side of my starry
banner,
Discarding peace over all the sea and land.

Banner and Pennant

Yet louder, higher, stronger, bard! yet farther, wider cleave!
No longer let our children deem us riches and peace alone,
We may be terror and carnage, and are so now,
Not now are we any one of these spacious and haughty
    States, (nor any five, nor ten,)
Nor market nor depot we, nor money-bank in the city,
But these and all, and the brown and spreading land, and the
     mines below, are ours,
And the shores of the sea are ours, and the rivers great and
     small,
And the fields they moisten, and the crops and the fruits are
     ours,
Bays and channels and ships sailing in and out are ours —
    while we over all,
Over the area spread below, the three or four millions of
     square miles, the capitals,
The forty millions of people, — O bard! in life and death
     supreme,
We, even we, henceforth flaunt out masterful, high up above,
Not for the present alone, for a thousand years chanting
     through you,
This song to the soul of one poor little child.

Child

O my father I like not the houses,
They will never to me be anything, nor do I like money,
But to mount up there I would like, O father dear, that
    banner I like,
That pennant I would be and must be.

Father

Child of mine you fill me with anguish,
To be that pennant would be too fearful,
Little you know what it is this day, and after this day, forever,
It is to gain nothing, but risk and defy everything,
Forward to stand in front of wars — and O, such wars! —
    what have you to do with them?
With passions of demons, slaughter, premature death?