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Away with themes of war! away with War itself!

Hence from my shuddering sight, to never more return, that show of blacken'd, mutilated corpses !

That hell unpent, and raid of blood-fit for wild tigers, or for lop-tongued wolves-not reasoning men !

And in its stead speed Industry's campaigns!
With thy undaunted armies, Engineering!
Thy pennants, Labor, loosen'd to the breeze!
Thy bugles sounding loud and clear !

Away with old romance!

Away with novels, plots, and plays of foreign courts!

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Away with love-verses, sugar'd in rhyme-the intrigues, amours

of idlers,

Fitted for only banquets of the night, where dancers to late music slide;

The unhealthy pleasures, extravagant dissipations of the few, With perfumes, heat and wine, beneath the dazzling chandeliers.

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To you, ye Reverent, sane Sisters,

To this resplendent day, the present scene,

These eyes and ears that like some broad parterre bloom up around, before me,

I raise a voice for far superber themes for poets and for Art,
To exalt the present and the real,

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To teach the average man the glory of his daily walk and trade, To sing, in songs, how exercise and chemical life are never to be

baffled;

Boldly to thee, America, to-day! and thee, Immortal Muse!
To practical, manual work, for each and all—to plough, hoe,

dig,

To plant and tend the tree, the berry, the vegetables, flowers, For every man to see to it that he really do something for every woman too;

To use the hammer, and the saw, (rip or cross-cut,)

To cultivate a turn for carpentering, plastering, painting,
To work as tailor, tailoress, nurse, hostler, porter,

To invent a little-something ingenious-to aid the washing,

cooking, cleaning,

And hold it no disgrace to take a hand at them themselves.

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I say I bring thee, Muse, to-day and here,
All occupations, duties broad and close,

Toil, healthy toil and sweat, endless, without cessation,
The old, old general burdens, interests, joys,

The family, parentage, childhood, husband and wife,
The house-comforts-the house itself, and all its belongings,
Food and its preservations-chemistry applied to it;
Whatever forms the average, strong, complete, sweet-blooded
Man or Woman-the perfect, longeve Personality,
And helps its present life to health and happiness—and shapes
its Soul,

For the eternal Real Life to come.

With latest materials, works,'

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Steam-power, the great Express lines, gas, petroleum,
These triumphs of our time, the Atlantic's delicate cable,
The Pacific Railroad, the Suez canal, the Mont Cenis tunnel;
Science advanced, in grandeur and reality, analyzing every thing,
This world all spann'd with iron rails—with lines of steamships
threading every sea,

Our own Rondure, the current globe I bring.

ΙΟ

And thou, high-towering One-America !"

Thy swarm of offspring towering high-yet higher thee, above

all towering,

With Victory on thy left, and at thy right hand Law;
Thou Union, holding all-fusing, absorbing, tolerating all,
Thee, ever thee, I bring.

Thou-also thou, a world!

With all thy wide geographies, manifold, different, distant,
Rounding by thee in One-one common orbic language,
One common indivisible destiny and Union."

II

And by the spells which ye vouchsafe,

To those, your ministers in earnest,

I here personify and call my themes,

To make them pass before ye.

Behold, America! (And thou, ineffable Guest and Sister!)
For thee come trooping up thy waters and thy lands:

1 1876 adds "The INTERTRANSPORTATION of the world."

1876 reads "And thou, America!"

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1876 reads "one common indivisible destiny, for All,"

Behold! thy fields and farms, thy far-off woods and mountains, As in procession coming.

Behold the sea itself!

And on its limitless, heaving breast, thy ships:

See where their white sails, bellying in the wind, speckle the green and blue !

See! thy steamers coming and going, steaming in or out of port! See! dusky and undulating, their long pennants of smoke!

Behold, in Oregon, far in the north and west,

Or in Maine, far in the north and east, thy cheerful axemen,
Wielding all day their axes!

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Behold, on the lakes, thy pilots at their wheels-thy oarsmen ! Behold how the ash writhes under those muscular arms!

There by the furnace, and there by the anvil,

Behold thy sturdy blacksmiths, swinging their sledges;

Overhand so steady-overhand they turn and fall, with joyous

clank,

Like a tumult of laughter.

Behold! (for still the procession moves,)

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Behold, Mother of All, thy countless sailors, boatmen, coasters! The myriads of thy young and old mechanics!

Mark-mark the spirit of invention everywhere-thy rapid patents,

Thy continual workshops, foundries, risen or rising;
See, from their chimneys, how the tall flame-fires stream!

Mark, thy interminable farms, North, South,

Thy wealthy Daughter-States, Eastern, and Western,

The varied products of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Georgia, Texas, and the rest ;

Thy limitless crops-grass, wheat, sugar, corn, rice, hemp, hops, Thy barns all fill'd-thy endless freight-trains, and thy bulging store-houses,

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The grapes that ripen on thy vines-the apples in thy orchards, Thy incalculable lumber, beef, pork, potatoes-thy coal-thy gold and silver,

The inexhaustible iron in thy mines.

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All thine, O sacred Union!

Ship, farm, shop, barns, factories, mines,

City and State-North, South, item and aggregate,
We dedicate, dread Mother, all to thee!

Protectress absolute, thou! Bulwark of all!

For well we know that while thou givest each and all, (generous

as God,)

Without thee, neither all nor each, nor land, home,

Ship, nor mine-nor any here, this day, secure,

Nor aught, nor any day secure.

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And thou, thy Emblem, waving over all!

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Delicate beauty! a word to thee, (it may be salutary ;) Remember, thou hast not always been, as here to-day, so com. fortably ensovereign'd;

In other scenes than these have I observ'd thee, flag;

Not quite so trim and whole, and freshly blooming, in folds of

stainless silk;

But I have seen thee, bunting, to tatters torn, upon thy splinter'd

staff,

Or clutch'd to some young color-bearer's breast, with desperate

hands,

Savagely struggled for, for life or death-fought over long, 240 'Mid cannon's thunder-crash, and many a curse, and groan and yell-and rifle-volleys cracking sharp,

And moving masses, as wild demons surging-and lives as nothing risk'd,

For thy mere remnant, grimed with dirt and smoke, and sopp'd in blood;

For sake of that, my beauty-and that thou might'st dally, as now, secure up there,

Many a good man have I seen go under.

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Now here, and these, and hence, in peace all thine, O Flag! And here, and hence, for thee, O universal Muse! and thou for

them!

And here and hence, O Union, all the work and workmen thine!

The poets, women, sailors, soldiers, farmers, miners, students thine!

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None separate from Thee-henceforth one only, we and Thou; (For the blood of the children-what is it only the blood Maternal ?

And lives and works-what are they all at last except the roads to Faith and Death?)

While we rehearse our measureless wealth, it is for thee, dear Mother!

We own it all and several to-day indissoluble in Thee; -Think not our chant, our show, merely for products gross, or lucre it is for Thee, the Soul, electric, spiritual! Our farms, inventions, crops, we own in Thee! Cities and States in Thee !

Our freedom all in Thee! our very lives in Thee!

ONE SONG, AMERICA, BEFORE I GO.

First published in "As a Strong Bird," etc., 1372.

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, thy 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 yet to come,

Out of that formula for Thee I sing.

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