O to promulgate our own! O to build for that which build
    for mankind!
O feuillage! O North! O the slope drained by the Mexican
    sea!
O all, all inseparable — ages, ages, ages!
O a curse on him that would dissever this Union for any
    reason whatever!
O climate, labors! O good and evil! O death!
O you strong with iron and wood! O Personality!
O the village or place which has the greatest man or woman!
    even if it be only a few ragged huts;
O the city where women walk in public processions in the
    streets, the same as the men;
O a wan and terrible emblem, by me adopted!
O shapes arising! shapes of the future centuries!
O muscle and pluck forever for me!
O workmen and workwomen forever for me!
O farmers and sailors! O drivers of horses forever for me!
O I will make the new bardic list of trades and tools!
O you coarse and wilful! I love you!
O South! O longings for my dear home! O soft and sunny
    airs!
O pensive! O I must return where the palm grows and the
    mocking bird sings, or else I die!
O equality! O organic compacts! I am come to be your born
    poet!
O whirl, contest, sounding and resounding! I am your poet,
    because I am part of you;
O days by-gone! Enthusiasts! Antecedents!
O vast preparations for These States! O years!
O what is now being sent forward thousands of years to
    come!
O mediums! O to teach! to convey the invisible faith!
To promulge real things! to journey through all The States!
O creation! O to-day! O laws! O unmitigated adoration!
O for mightier broods of orators, artists, and singers!
O for native songs! carpenter's, boatman's, ploughman's
    songs! shoemaker's songs!
O haughtiest growth of time! O free and extatic!
O what I, here, preparing, warble for!

O you hastening light! O the sun of the world will ascend,
    dazzling, and take his height — and you too will ascend;
O so amazing and so broad! up there resplendent, darting
    and burning;
O prophetic! O vision staggered with weight of light! with
    pouring glories!
O copious! O hitherto unequalled!
O Libertad! O compact! O union impossible to dissever!
O my Soul! O lips becoming tremulous, powerless!
O centuries, centuries yet ahead!
O voices of greater orators! I pause — I listen for you!
O you States! Cities! defiant of all outside authority! I
    spring at once into your arms! you I most love!
O you grand Presidentiads! I wait for you!
New history! New heroes! I project you!
Visions of poets! only you really last! O sweep on! sweep on!
O Death! O you striding there! O I cannot yet!
O heights! O infinitely too swift and dizzy yet!
O purged lumine! you threaten me more than I can stand!
O present! I return while yet I may to you!
O poets to come, I depend upon you!

1860

O SUN OF REAL PEACE

1860

[SO FAR AND SO FAR, AND ON TOWARD THE END]

1860