18 I too with my soul and body, We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way, 70 Through these shores, amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing, Pioneers! O pioneers! 19 Lo! the darting bowling orb ! Lo! the brother orbs around! all the clustering suns and planets, All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams, Pioneers O pioneers! 20 These are of us, they are with us, All for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait behind, We to-day's procession heading, we the route for travel clearing, Pioneers! O pioneers! O you daughters of the west! 21 80 O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives! Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united, Pioneers! O pioneers! 22 Minstrels latent on the prairies! (Shrouded bards of other lands! you may sleep-you have done your work ;) Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us, Pioneers! O pioneers! 23 Not for delectations sweet; Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studi ous; Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment, Pioneers! O pioneers! 90 24 Do the feasters gluttonous feast? Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and bolted doors? Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged, nodding on our way? Yet a passing hour I yield you, in your tracks to pause oblivious, Pioneers! O pioneers! 100 26 Till with sound of trumpet, Far, far off the day-break call-hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind; Swift to the head of the army !-swift! spring to your places, Pioneers! O pioneers. TURN, O LIBERTAD. First published in " Drum-Taps," 1865. TURN, O Libertad, for the war is over,1 (From it and all henceforth expanding, doubting no more, resolute, sweeping the world,)2 Turn from lands retrospective, recording proofs of the past; Turn to the world, the triumphs reserv'd and to come-give up that backward world; Leave to the singers of hitherto—give them the trailing past; But what remains, remains for singers for you-wars to come are for you; (Lo! how the wars of the past have duly inured to you-and the wars of the present also inure :) 1 "Drum Taps" reads "Turn, O) Libertad, no more doubting.” -Then turn, and be not alarm'd, O Libertad-turn your undy ing face, To where the future, greater than all the past, Is swiftly, surely preparing for you. IC ADIEU TO A SOLDIER. ADIEU, O soldier! First published in 1870. You of the rude campaigning, (which we shared,) The rapid march, the life of the camp, The hot contention of opposing fronts-the long manœuver, Red battles with their slaughter,—the stimulus-the strong, terrific game, Spell of all brave and manly hearts-the trains of Time through you, and like of you, all fill'd, With war, and war's expression. Adieu, dear comrade! Your mission is fulfill'd-but I, more warlike, Myself, and this contentious soul of mine, Still on our own campaigning bound, Through untried roads, with ambushes, opponents lined, Through many a sharp defeat and many a crisis-often baffled, Here marching, ever marching on, a war fight out—aye here, To fiercer, weightier battles give expression. ΙΟ AS I WALK THESE BROAD, MAJESTIC DAYS. First published in 1860 in " Songs Before Parting," under title of "As I Walk Solitary, Unattended.' See line 7. As I walk these broad, majestic days of peace, (For the war, the struggle of blood finish'd, wherein, O terrific Ideal! Against vast odds, having gloriously won, Now thou stridest on-yet perhaps in time toward denser wars, Perhaps to engage in time in still more dreadful contests, dangers, Longer campaigns and crises, labors beyond all others'; -As I walk solitary, unattended, 1 Lines 1-6 added in 1870. Around me I hear that eclat of the world-politics, produce, The announcements of recognized things-science, The approved growth of cities, and the spread of inventions. 10 I see the ships, (they will last a few years,) The vast factories, with their foremen and workmen, And here the indorsement of all, and do not object to it. But I too announce solid things ;' Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing-I watch them," Like a grand procession, to music of distant bugles, pouring, triumphantly moving-and grander heaving in sight;" They stand for realities-all is as it should be. Then my realities; What else is so real as mine? Libertad, and the divine average-Freedom to every slave on the face of the earth, 20 The rapt promises and luminé of seers--the spiritual world— these centuries lasting songs, And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements of any. For we support all, fuse all, After the rest is done and gone, we remain ; There is no final reliance but upon us; Democracy rests finally upon us (I, my brethren, begin it,) And our visions sweep through eternity. WEAVE IN, WEAVE IN, MY HARDY LIFE. First published in "Drum-Taps," 1865. WEAVE in! weave in, my hardy life! Weave yet a soldier strong and full, for great campaigns to come; Weave in red blood! weave sinews in, like ropes! the senses, sight weave in! 1 "Songs Before Parting" reads "But we too announce solid things." 2 "Songs Before Parting." For "I watch them" reads " they serve." 3 Line 16 added in 1870. Weave lasting sure! weave day and night the weft, the warp, icessant weave! tire not! (We know not what the use, O life! nor know the aim, the end -nor really aught we know ; But know the work, the need goes on, and shall go on-the death-envelop'd march of peace as well as war goes on: For great campaigns of peace the same, the wiry threads to weave : We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave. RACE OF VETERANS. First published in "When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloomed," 1865-6. Race of the soil, ready for conflict! race of the conquering march! (No more credulity's race, abiding-temper'd race ;) Race henceforth' owning no law but the law of itself; LEAVES OF GRASS. THIS COMPOST. First published in 1856 under title of "Poem of Wonder at The Resurrection of The Wheat." I SOMETHING startles me where I thought I was safest ; I withdraw from the still woods I loved; I will not go now on the pastures to walk; I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea; I will not touch my flesh to the earth, as to other flesh, to renew me. O how can it be that the ground does not sicken ?3 1 "Race of Victors!" added in 1870. 2 "Race henceforth" added in 1870. 3 1856 reads "How can the ground not sicken of men ?" 1860 reads "O Earth! O how can the ground of you not sicken ?" |