A HAND-MIRROR.

First published in 1860.

HOLD it up sternly! See this it sends back! (Who is it? Is it you ?)

Outside fair costume-within ashes and filth,

No more a flashing eye-no more a sonorous voice or springy step;

Now some slave's eye, voice, hands, step,

A drunkard's breath, unwholesome eater's face, venerealee's flesh,

Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and cankerous,
Joints rheumatic, bowels clogged with abomination,

Blood circulating dark and poisonous streams,

Words babble, hearing and touch callous,

No brain, no heart left-no magnetism of sex;

Such, from one look in this looking-glass ere you go hence,
Such a result so soon-and from such a beginning!

ΙΟ

GERMS.

First published in 1860.

FORMS, qualities, lives, humanity, language, thoughts,

The ones known, and the ones unknown-the ones on the stars, The stars themselves, some shaped, others unshaped,

Wonders as of those countries-the soil, trees, cities, inhabitants, whatever they may be,

Splendid suns, the moons and rings, the countless combinations and effects;

Such-like, and as good as such-like, visible here or anywhere, stand provided for in a handful of space, which I extend my arm and half enclose with my hand;

That contains the start of each and all-the virtue, the germs of all.1

O ME! O LIFE!

First published in "When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd," 1865-6.

O ME! O life! . . . of the questions of these recurring;

Of the endless trains of the faithless-of cities fill'd with the foolish;

1 1860 adds "That is the theory as of origins."

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew'd;

Of the poor results of all-of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;

Of the empty and useless years of the rest-with the rest me intertwined;

The question, O me! so sad, recurring-What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here—that life exists, and identity;

That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

OF Public Opinion;

THOUGHTS.

First published in 1860.

Of a calm and cool fiat, sooner or later, (How impassive! How certain and final!)

Of the President with pale face, asking secretly to himself, What will the people say at last?

Of the frivolous Judge-Of the corrupt Congressman, Governor, Mayor-Of such as these, standing helpless and exposed;

Of the mumbling and screaming priest-(soon, soon deserted ;) Of the lessening, year by year, of venerableness, and of the dicta of officers, statutes, pulpits, schools;

Of the rising forever taller and stronger and broader, of the intuitions of men and women, and of self-esteem, and of personality;

-Of the New World-Of the Democracies, resplendent, en

masse ;

Of the conformity of politics, armies, navies, to them and to me, Of the shining sun by them-Of the inherent light, greater than

Of the envelopment of all by them, and of the effusion of all from them.

BEGINNERS.

First published in 1860.

How they are provided for upon the earth, (appearing at intervals ;)

How dear and dreadful they are to the earth;

How they inure to themselves as much as to any-What a paradox appears their age;

How people respond to them, yet know them not;

How there is something relentless in their fate, all times;

How all times mischoose the objects of their adulation and reward,

And how the same inexorable price must still be paid for the same great purchase.

SONGS OF INSURRECTION.

STILL THOUGH THE ONE I SING.

First published in 1870.

STILL, though the one I sing,

(One, yet of contradictions made,) I dedicate to Nationality, I leave in him Revolt, (O latent right of insurrection! O quenchless, indispensable fire!)

TO A FOIL'D EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONAIRE.

First published in 1856 under title of Liberty Poem for Asia, Africa, Europe, America," etc. In 1860 '67 under title of "To a Foiled Revolter or Revoltress."

I

COURAGE yet!1 my brother or my sister!

Keep on! Liberty is to be subserv'd, whatever occurs;

That is nothing, that is quell'd by one or two failures, or any number of failures,

Or by the indifference or ingratitude of the people, or by any unfaithfulness,

Or the show of the tushes of power, soldiers, cannon, penal

statutes.

"yet" added in 1870.

Revolt! and still revolt! revolt!'

What we believe in waits latent forever through all the conti nents, and all the islands and archipelagos of the sea ;2 What we believe in invites no one, promises nothing, sits in calmness and light, is positive and composed, knows no discouragement,

Waiting patiently, waiting its time."

For I am the sworn poet of every dauntless rebel, the world

over,

And he going with me leaves peace and routine behind him,
And stakes his life, to be lost at any moment.)

2

Revolt and the downfall of tyrants!"

The battle rages with many a loud alarm, and frequent advance and retreat,

The infidel triumphs-or supposes he triumphs,

Then the prison, scaffold, garrote, hand-cuffs, iron necklace and anklet, lead-balls, do their work,

The named and unnamed heroes pass to other spheres,
The great speakers and writers are exiled-they lie sick in

distant lands,

20

The cause is asleep-the strongest throats are still, choked with their own blood,

The young men droop their eyelashes toward the ground when they meet;

-But for all this, liberty has not gone out of the place, nor the infidel enter'd into full possession.

When liberty goes out of a place, it is not the first to go, nor the second or third to go,

It waits for all the rest to go-it is the last.

1 Line 6 added in 1870.

2 1856 '60 read "through Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Australia, Cuba, and all the islands," etc.

3 1856'60 read "Waits patiently its time, a year, a century, a hundred centuries."

Lines 10-15 added in 1870.

When there are no more memories of heroes and martyrs,'
And when all life, and all the souls of men and women are dis-

charged from any part of the earth,

Then only shall liberty, or the idea of liberty, be discharged from that part of the earth,

And the infidel come into full possession."

3

Then courage! European revolter! revoltress !"
For, till all ceases, neither must you cease.

30

I do not know what you are for, (I do not know what I am for myself, nor what anything is for,)

But I will search carefully for it even in being foil'd,

In defeat, poverty, misconception, imprisonment for they too are great.

Revolt and the bullet for tyrants!

Did we think victory great?

So it is-But now it seems to me, when it cannot be help'd, that defeat is great,

And that death and dismay are great.

1 1856 reads "When there are no more memories of the lovers of the whole nations of the world." 1860 reads "When there are no more memories of the superb lovers of the nations of the world." After which, with the addition of the word "superb," editions of 1856'60 read.

"The lovers' names scouted in the public gatherings by the lips of the orators,

Boys not christened after them, but christened after traitors and murderers

instead,

Laws for slaves sweet to the taste of people—the slave-hunt acknowledged." 1860 adds "Tyrants' and Priests' successes really acknowledged anywhere, for all the ostensible appearances." 1856'60 read "You or I walking abroad upon the earth, elated at the sight of slaves, no matter who they are.

2 For lines 28-29, 1856 '60 read "Then shall the instinct of liberty be discharged from that part of the earth,

Then shall the infidel and tyrant come into possession."

Which ends the poem in edition of 1856.

"Then courage!" with lines 31-2-3-4-6-7-8 added in 1860.

66

"Revolter! Revoltress!" added in 1867. 'European" added in 1870.

5 "misconception " added in 1870.

• Line 15 added in 1870.