60

Let the daub'd portraits of heroes supersede heroes!
Let the manhood of man never take steps after itself!
Let it take steps after eunuchs, and after consumptive and gen-
teel persons!

Let the white person again tread the black person under his heel! (Say! which is trodden under heel, after all?) Let the reflections of the things of the world be studied in mirrors! let the things themselves still continue unstudied!

Let a man seek pleasure everywhere except in himself !1 Let a woman seek happiness everywhere except in herself!2 (What real happiness have you had one single hour through your whole life?)

Let the limited years of life do nothing for the limitless years of death! (What do you suppose death will do, then?)

SOLID, IRONICAL, ROLLING ORB.

First published in "Drum-Taps," 1865.

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.

BATHED IN WAR'S PERFUME.

First published in "Drum-Taps," 1865

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 beau

tiful 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.

1 See note at line 8.

2 See note at line 8.

3 1856 '60 read " (Say! What") etc.
1856 '60 read "(Say! What") etc.

THOUGHT.

First published in 1860.

517

Or what I write from myself-As if that were not the resume; Of Histories-As if such, however complete, were not less complete than the preceding poems;

As if those shreds, the records of nations, could possibly be as lasting as the preceding poems;

As if here were not the amount of all nations, and of all the lives of heroes.

LESSONS.

Published in "Passage to India."

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.

THIS DAY, O SOUL.

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

THIS day, O Soul, I give you a wondrous mirror;

Long in the dark, in tarnish and cloud it lay-But the cloud bas 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.

TO THE READER AT PARTING.

First published in 1867.

Now, dearest comrade, lift me to your face,

We must separate awhile-Here! take from my lips this kiss. Whoever you are, I give it especially to you;

So long --And I hope we shall meet again.

TWO RIVULETS.1

First published in 1876.

Two Rivulets side by side,

Two blended, parallel, strolling tides,

Companions, travelers, gossiping as they journey.

For the Eternal Ocean bound,

These ripples, passing surges, streams of Death and Life,
Object and Subject hurrying, whirling by,

The Real and Ideal,

Alternate ebb and flow the Days and Nights,

(Strands of a Trio twining, Present, Future, Past.)

10

In You, whoe'er you are, my book perusing,

In I myself-in all the World-these ripples flow,
All, all, toward the mystic Ocean tending.

(O yearnful waves! the kisses of your lips!

Your breast so broad, with open arms, O firm, expanded shore !)

OR FROM THAT SEA OF TIME.

Published in "Two Rivulets," 1876.

OR, from that Sea of Time,

I

Spray, blown by the wind-a double winrow-drift of weeds and shells;

(O little shells, so curious-convolute! so limpid-cold and voice

less!

Yet will you not, to the tympans of temples held,

Murmurs and echoes still bring up-Eternity's music, faint and far,

Wafted inland, sent from Atlantica's rim-strains for the Soul of the Prairies,

Whisper'd reverberations-chords for the ear of the West, joyously sounding

Your tidings old, yet ever new and untranslatable ;)

1 Title given to the Second Volume of Centennial Edition, 1876. This poem, which gave the title, and three others not reprinted in later editions, we have included in "Gathered Leaves."

Infinitessimals out of my life, and many a life,

IC

(For not my life and years alone I give-all, all I give ;) These thoughts and Songs-waifs from the deep-here, cast high and dry,

Wash'd on America's shores.

2

Currents of starting a Continent new,

Overtures sent to the solid out of the liquid,

Fusion of ocean and land-tender and pensive waves,

(Not safe and peaceful only-waves rous'd and ominous too. Out of the depths, the storm's abysms-Who knows whence? Death's waves,

Raging over the vast, with many a broken spar and tatter'd sail.)

FROM MY LAST YEARS.

Published in "Two Rivulets," 1876.

FROM my last years, last thoughts I here bequeath,
Scatter'd and dropt, in seeds, and wafted to the West,
Through moisture of Ohio, prairie soil of Illinois-through
Colorado, California air,

For Time to germinate fully.

IN FORMER SONGS.

Published in "Two Rivulets," 1876.

IN former songs Pride have I sung, and Love, and passionate, joyful Life,

But here I twine the strands of Patriotism and Death.

And now, Life, Pride, Love, Patriotism and Death,

To you, O FREEDOM, purport of all!

(You that elude me most-refusing to be caught in songs of

mine,)

I sound out you, and words of you, with daring tone-embodying

you,

In my new Democratic chants-keeping you for a close,

For last impregnable retreat-
-a citadel and tower,

For my last stand-my pealing, final cry.