'Twas well, O soul — 'twas a good preparation you gave me,
Now we advance our latent and ampler
hunger to fill,
Now we go forth to receive what the earth and the sea never
gave us,
Not through the mighty
woods we go, but through the
mightier cities,
Something for us is pouring now more than Niagara pouring,
Torrents
of men, (sources and rills of the Northwest are you
indeed inexhaustible?)
What, to pavements and homesteads
here, what were those
storms of the mountains and sea?
What, to passions I witness around me to-
day? was the sea
risen?
Was the wind piping the pipe of death under the black clouds?
Lo! from deeps
more unfathomable, something more deadly
and savage,
Manhattan rising, advancing with menacing
front — Cincinnati,
Chicago, unchain'd;
What was that swell I saw on the ocean? behold what comes
here,
How it climbs with daring feet and hands — how it dashes!
How the true thunder bellows after the
lightning — how
bright the flashes of lightning!
How Democracy with desperate vengeful port strides on,
shown through the dark by those flashes of lightning!
(Yet a mournful wail and low sob I fancied I heard
through
the dark,
In a lull of the deafening confusion.)
stroke!
And do you rise higher than ever yet O days, O cities!
Crash heavier, heavier yet O storms! you have done me
good,
My soul prepared in the mountains absorbs your immortal
strong nutriment,
Long had I walk'd my cities, my country roads through
farms, only half satisfied,
One doubt nauseous undulating like a snake, crawl'd on the
ground before me,
Continually preceding my steps, turning upon me oft, ironically
hissing low;
The cities I love so well I abandon'd and left, I sped to the
certainties suitable to me,
Hungering, hungering, hungering, for primal energies and
Nature's dauntlessness,
I refresh'd myself with it only, I could relish it only,
I waited the bursting forth of the pent fire — on the water and
air I waited long;
But now I no longer wait, I am fully satisfied, I am glutted,
I have witness'd the true lightning, I have witness'd my cities
electric,
I have lived to behold man burst forth and warlike America
rise,
Hence I will seek no more the food of the northern solitary
wilds,
No more the mountains roam or sail the stormy sea.
1865 1867
VIRGINIA — THE WEST
The noble sire fallen on evil days,
I saw with hand uplifted, menacing, brandishing,
(Memories of old in
abeyance, love and faith in abeyance,)
The insane knife toward the Mother of All.
The noble son on sinewy feet advancing,
I saw, out of the land of prairies, land of Ohio's waters and of
Indiana,
To the rescue the stalwart giant hurry his plenteous
offspring,
Drest in blue, bearing their trusty
rifles on their shoulders.
Then the Mother of All with calm voice speaking,
As to you Rebellious, (I seemed
to hear her say,) why strive
against me, and why seek my life?
When you yourself forever provide to defend
me?
For you provided me Washington — and now these also.
1872 1881
CITY OF SHIPS
City of Ships!
(O the black ships! O the fierce ships!
O the beautiful sharp-bow'd steam-ships and sail-
ships!)
City of the world! (for all races are here,
All the lands of the earth make contributions here;)
City of
the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides!
City whose gleeful tides continually rush or recede, whirling
in
and out with eddies and foam!
City of wharves and stores — city of tall façcades of marble and
iron!
Proud
and passionate city — mettlesome, mad, extravagant
city!
Spring up O city — not for peace alone, but
be indeed yourself,
warlike!
Fear not — submit to no models but your own O city!
Behold me — incarnate
me as I have incarnated you!
I have rejected nothing you offer'd me — whom you adopted I have adopted,
Good
or bad I never question you — I love all — I do not condemn anything,
I chant and celebrate all that is
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