Banner

Demons and death then I sing,
Put in all, aye all will I, sword-shaped pennant for war,
And a pleasure new and ecstatic, and the prattled yearning of
     children,
Blent with the sounds of the peaceful land and the liquid
     wash of the sea,
And the black ships fighting on the sea envelop'd in smoke,
And the icy cool of the far, far north, with rustling cedars
     and pines,
And the whirr of drums and the sound of soldiers marching,
     and the hot sun shining south,
And the beach-waves combing over the beach on my Eastern shore,
     and my Western shore the same,
And all between those shores, and my ever running Mississippi
     with bends and chutes,
And my Illinois fields, and my Kansas fields, and my fields of
     Missouri,
The Continent, devoting the whole identity without reserving
     an atom,
Pour in! whelm that which asks, which sings, with all and the
     yield of all,

Fusing and holding, claiming, devouring the whole,
No more with tender lip, nor musical labial sound,
But out of the night emerging for good, our voice persuasive
     no more,
Croaking like crows here in the wind.

Poet

My limbs, my veins dilate, my theme is clear at last,
Banner so broad advancing out of the night, I sing you
     haughty and resolute,
I burst through where I waited long, too long, deafen'd and
     blinded,
My hearing and tongue are come to me, (a little child taught
     me,)
I hear from above O pennant of war your ironical call and
     demand,
Insensate! insensate (yet I at any rate chant you,) O banner!
Not houses of peace indeed are you, nor any nor all their
     prosperity, (if need be, you shall again have every one of
     those houses to destroy them,
You thought not to destroy those valuable houses, standing
    fast, full of comfort, built with money,
May they stand fast, then? not an hour except you above
        them and all stand fast;)
O banner, not money so precious are you, not farm produce you,
     nor the material good nutriment,
Nor excellent stores, nor landed on wharves from the ships,
Not the superb ships with sail-power or steam-power, fetching and
     carrying cargoes,
Nor machinery, vehicles, trade, nor revenues — but you as
     henceforth I see you,
Running up out of the night, bringing your cluster of stars,
     (ever-enlarging stars,)
Divider of daybreak you, cutting the air, touch'd by the sun,
     measuring the sky,
(Passionately seen and yearn'd for by one poor little child,
While others remain busy or smartly talking, forever teaching
     thrift, thrift;)

O you up there! O pennant! where you undulate like a snake
     hissing so curious,
Out of reach, an idea only, yet furiously fought for, risking
     bloody death, loved by me,
So loved — O you banner leading the day with stars brought
     from the night!
Valueless, object of eyes, over all and demanding all —
    (absolute owner of all) — O banner and pennant!
I too leave the rest — great as it is, it is nothing — houses,
     machines are nothing — I see them not,
I see but you, O warlike pennant! O banner so broad, with stripes,
     I sing you only,
Flapping up there in the wind.

(1861-2?) 1881

RISE O DAYS FROM YOUR FATHOMLESS DEEPS

Rise O days from your fathomless deeps, till you loftier,
     fiercer sweep,
Long for my soul hungering gymnastic I devour'd what the
     earth gave me,
Long I roam'd the woods of the north, long I watch'd
     Niagara pouring,
I travel'd the prairies over and slept on their breast, I cross'd
     the Nevadas, I cross'd the plateaus,
I ascended the towering rocks along the Pacific, I sail'd out
     to sea,
I sail'd through the storm, I was refresh'd by the storm,
I watch'd with joy the threatening maws of the waves,
I mark'd the white combs where they career'd so high, curling
     over,
I heard the wind piping, I saw the black clouds,
Saw from below what arose and mounted, (O superb! O
     wild as my heart, and powerful!)
Heard the continuous thunder as it bellow'd after the
     lightning,
Noted the slender and jagged threads of lightning as sudden
     and fast amid the din they chased each other across the
     sky;
These, and such as these, I, elate, saw — saw with wonder, yet
     pensive and masterful,
All the menacing might of the globe uprisen around me,
Yet there with my soul I fed, I fed content, supercilious.