SONG OF THE EXPOSITION.

Applied to The Centennial, Philadelphia, 1876. (Originally recited for opening the Fortieth Annual Exhibition, American Institute, New York, noon, September 7, 1871.) Published in 1871 under title of “After All Not to Create Only.”

I

AFTER all, not to create only, or found only,

But to bring, perhaps from afar, what is already founded,
To give it our own identity, average, limitless, free;
To fill the gross, the torpid bulk with vital religious fire;
Not to repel or destroy, so much as accept, fuse, rehabilitate;
To obey, as well as command-to follow, more than to lead ;
These also are the lessons of our New World;

-While how little the New, after all-how much the Old, Old
World!

Long, long, long, has the grass been growing,

Long and long has the rain been falling,

Long has the globe been rolling round.

2

Come, Muse, migrate from Greece and Ionia;

Cross out, please, those immensely overpaid accounts,

ΙΟ

That matter of Troy, and Achilles' wrath, and Eneas', Odysseus' wanderings;

Placard "Removed" and " To Let" on the rocks of your snowy Parnassus;

Repeat at Jerusalem-place the notice high on Jaffa's gate, and on Mount Moriah;

The same on the walls of your Gothic European Cathedrals, and German, French and Spanish Castles;

For know a better, fresher, busier sphere-a wide, untried domain awaits, demands you.

Responsive to our summons,

Or rather to her long-nurs'd inclination,

Join'd with an irresistible, natural gravitation,

20

She comes! this famous Female-as was indeed to be expected;
(For who, so-ever youthful, 'cute and handsome, would wish to
stay in mansions such as those,

When offer'd quarters with all the modern improvements,
With all the fun that 's going-and all the best society?)

She comes! I hear the rustling of her gown;

I scent the odor of her breath's delicious fragrance;

I mark her step divine-her curious eyes a-turning, rolling,
Upon this very scene.

The Dame of Dames! can I believe, then,

30

Those ancient temples classic, and castles strong and feudalistic, could none of them restrain her?

Nor shades of Virgil and Dante-nor myriad memories, poems, old associations, magnetize and hold on to her?

But that she 's left them all--and here?

Yes, if you will allow me to say so,

I, my friends, if you do not, can plainly see Her,

The same Undying Soul of Earth's, activity's, beauty's, heroism's

Expression,

Out from her evolutions hither come-submerged the strata of
her former themes,

Hidden and cover'd by to-day's-foundation of to-day's;
Ended, deceas'd, through time, her voice by Castaly's fountain;
Silent through time the broken-lipp'd Sphynx in Egypt-silent
those century-baffling tombs ;

40

Closed for aye the epics of Asia's, Europe's helmeted warriors;
Calliope's call for ever closed--Clio, Melpomene, Thalia closed

and dead;

Seal'd the stately rhythmus of Una and Oriana-ended the quest
of the Holy Graal;

Jerusalem a handful of ashes blown by the wind-extinct;
The Crusaders' streams of shadowy, midnight troops, sped with
the sunrise ;

Amadis, Tancred, utterly gone-Charlemagne, Roland, Oliver
gone,

Palmerin, ogre, departed-vanish'd the turrets that Usk reflected,
Arthur vanish'd with all his knights-Merlin and Lancelot and

Galahad-all gone-dissolv'd utterly, like an exhalation;
Pass'd! pass'd! for us, for ever pass'd! that once so mighty
World--now void, inanimate, phantom World!

Embroider'd, dazzling World! with all its gorgeous legends,

myths,

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Its kings and barons proud-its priests, and warlike lords, and courtly dames;

Pass'd to its charnel vault-laid on the shelf-coffin'd, with Crown and Armor on,

Blazon'd with Shakspeare's purple page,

And dirged by Tennyson's sweet sad rhyme.

I say I see, my friends, if you do not, the Animus of all that World,

Escaped, bequeath'd, vital, fugacious as ever, leaving those dead remains, and now this spot approaching, filling; —And I can hear what maybe you do not-a terrible æsthetical commotion,

Philadelphia, London;

With howling, desperate gulp of "flower" and "bower,"
With "Sonnet to Matilda's Eyebrow quite, quite frantic ;
With gushing, sentimental reading circles turn'd to ice or stone;
With many a squeak, (in metre choice,) from Boston, New York,
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As she, the illustrious Emigré, (having, it is true, in her day,
although the same, changed, journey'd considerable,)
Making directly for this rendezvous-vigorously clearing a path
for herself striding through the confusion,

By thud of machinery and shrill steam-whistle undismay'd,
Bluff'd not a bit by drain-pipe, gasometers, artificial fertilizers,
Smiling and pleased, with palpable intent to stay,
She's here, install'd amid the kitchen ware!

4

But hold-don't I forget my manners?

To introduce the Stranger (what else indeed have I come for?) to thee, Columbia :

In Liberty's name, welcome, Immortal! clasp hands,
And ever henceforth Sisters dear be both.

70

Fear not, O Muse! truly new ways and days receive, surround

you,

(I candidly confess, a queer, queer race, of novel fashion,) And yet the same old human race-the same within, without, Faces and hearts the same-feelings the same-yearnings the

same,

The same old love-beauty and use the same.

5

We do not blame thee, Elder World-nor separate ourselves from

thee:

(Would the Son separate himself from the Father?)

Looking back on thee-seeing thee to thy duties, grandeurs, through past ages bending, building,

We build to ours to-day.

Mightier than Egypt's tombs,

Fairer than Grecia's, Roma's temples,

Prouder than Milan's statued, spired Cathedral,
More picturesque than Rhenish castle-keeps,
We plan, even now, to raise, beyond them all,
Thy great Cathedral, sacred Industry-no tomb,

A Keep for life for practical Invention.

As in a waking vision,

E'en while I chant, I see it rise-I scan and prophesy outside

Loftier, fairer, ampler than any yet,

Earth's modern Wonder, History's Seven outstripping,

90

High rising tier on tier, with glass and iron façades.

Gladdening the sun and sky-enhued in cheerfulest hues,
Bronze, lilac, robin's-egg, marine and crimson,

Over whose golden roof shall flaunt, beneath thy banner, Free

dom,

The banners of The States, the flags of every land,

A brood of lofty, fair, but lesser Palaces shall cluster.

Somewhere within the walls of all,

Shall all that forwards perfect human life be started,
Tried, taught, advanced, visibly exhibited.

Here shall you trace in flowing operation,

In every state of practical, busy movement,

The rills of Civilization.

100

Materials here, under your eye, shall change their shape, as if by

magic;

H

The cotton shall be pick'd almost in the Shall be dried, clean'd, ginn'd, baled, cloth, before you:

very field,
spun into thread and

You shall see hands at work at all the old processes, and all the

new ones;

You shall see the various grains, and how flour is made, and then bread baked by the bakers;

IIO

You shall see the crude ores of California and Nevada passing on and on till they become bullion;

You shall watch how the printer sets type, and learn what a composing stick is;

You shall mark, in amazement, the Hoe press whirling its cylinders, shedding the printed leaves steady and fast: The photograph, model, watch, pin, nail, shall be created before

you.

In large calm halls, a stately Museum shall teach you the infinite, solemn lessons of Minerals;

In another, woods, plants, Vegetation shall be illustrated-in another Animals, animal life and development.

One stately house shall be the Music House;

Others for other Arts-Learning, the Sciences, shall all be here; None shall be slighted-none but shall here be honor'd, help'd, exampled.

7

This, this and these, America, shall be your Pyramids and

Obelisks,

Your Alexandrian Pharos, gardens of Babylon,

Your temple at Olympia.

The male and female many laboring not,
Shall ever here confront the laboring many,
With precious benefits to both-glory to all,
To thee, America-and thee, Eternal Muse.

And here shall ye inhabit, Powerful Matrons!
In your vast state, vaster than all the old ;
Echoed through long, long centuries to come,

120

To sound of different, prouder songs, with stronger themes, 130 Practical, peaceful life-the people's life-the People them

selves,

Lifted, illumin'd, bathed in peace-elate, secure in peace.