SOLID, IRONICAL, ROLLING ORB

Solid, ironical, rolling orb!
Master of all, and matter of fact! — at last I accept your
    terms;
Bringing to practical, vulgar tests, of all my ideal dreams,
And of me, as lover and hero.

1865

BATHED IN WAR'S PERFUME

Bathed in war's perfume — delicate flag!
(Should the days needing armies, needing fleets, come again,)
O to hear you call the sailors and the soldiers! flag like a
    beautiful woman!
O to hear the tramp, tramp, of a million answering men! O
    the ships they arm with joy!
O to see you leap and beckon from the tall masts of ships!
O to see you peering down on the sailors on the decks!
Flag like the eyes of women.

1865

NOT MY ENEMIES EVER INVADE ME

Nto my enemies ever invade me — no harm to my pride from
    them I fear;
But the lovers I recklessly love — lo! how they master me!
Lo! me, ever open and helpless, bereft of my strength!
Utterly abject, grovelling on the ground before them.

1865-6

THIS DAY, O SOUL

This day, O Soul, I give you a wondrous mirror;
Long in the dark, in tarnish and cloud it lay — But the cloud
    has pass'd, and the tarnish gone;
. . .Behold, O Soul! it is now a clean and bright mirror,
Faithfully showing you all the things of the world.

1865-6

LESSONS

There are who teach only the sweet lessons of peace and safety;
But I teach lessons of war and death to those I love,
That they readily meet invasions, when they come.

1871

ONE SONG, AMERICA, BEFORE I GO

One song, America, before I go,
I'd sing, o'er all the rest, with trumpet sound,
For thee — the Future.

I'd sow a seed for thee of endless Nationality;
I'd fashion thy Ensemble, including Body, and Soul;
I'd show, away ahead, the real Union, and how it may be
    accomplish'd.

(The paths to the House I seek to make,
But leave to those to come, the House itself.)

Belief I sing — and Preparation;
As Life and Nature are not great with reference to the
    Present only,
But greater still from what is to come,
Out of that formula for Thee I sing.

1872

AFTER AN INTERVAL

(Nov. 22, 1875, midnight — Saturn and Mars in conjunction)

After an interval, reading, here in the midnight,
With the great stars looking on — all the stars of Orion looking,
And the silent Pleiades — and the duo looking of Saturn and
    ruddy Mars;
Pondering, reading my own songs, after a long interval,
    (sorrow and death familiar now,)
Ere closing the book, what pride! what joy! to find them,
Standing so well the test of death and night!
And the duo of Saturn and Mars!

1875