How many hold despairingly yet to the models departed, caste, myths, obedience, compulsion, and to infidelity;

How few see the arrived models, the Athletes, the Western' States or see freedom or spirituality-or hold any faith in results,

(But I see the Athletes—and I see the results of the war" glorious and inevitable-and they again leading to other results;) How the great cities appear-How the Democratic masses, turbulent, wilful, as I love them;

How the whirl, the contest, the wrestle of evil with good, the sounding and resounding, keep on and on;

How society waits unform'd, and is for awhile between things ended and things begun;

How America is the continent of glories, and of the triumph of freedom, and of the Democracies, and of the fruits of society, and of all that is begun ;

ΙΟ

And how The States are complete in themselves-And how all triumphs and glories are complete in themselves, to lead onward,

And how these of mine, and of The States, will in their turn be convuls'd, and serve other parturitions and transitions, And how all people, sights, combinations, the Democratic masses, too, serve-and how every fact, and war itself, with all

And how now, or at any time, each serves the exquisite transition of death.

2

First published in 1860 as "Chants Democratic."

'OF seeds dropping into the ground-of birth,

Of the steady concentration of America, inland, upward, to impregnable and swarming places,

Of what Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and the rest, are to be, Of what a few years will show there in Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, and the rest;

(Or afar, mounting the Northern Pacific to Sitka or Aliaska ;)5 Of what the feuillage of America is the preparation for-and of what all sights, North, South, East and West, are;

1 "Western" added in 1870.

2 of the war " added in 1870.

3 "and war itself, with all its horrors" added in 1870.

1860 begins poem "The thought of fruitage,

Of Death, (the life greater)--of seeds," etc.

5 Line 5 added in 1870.

Of This Union, soak'd, welded in blood-of the solemn price paid-of the unnamed lost, ever present in my mind ;' -Of the temporary use of materials, for identity's sake, Of the present, passing, departing-of the growth of completer men than any yet,2

Of myself, soon, perhaps, closing up my songs by these shores,

10

Of California, of Oregon-and of me journeying to live and sing there;

Of the Western Sea-of the spread inland between it and the spinal river,

Of the great pastoral area, athletic and feminine,

Of all sloping down there where the fresh free giver, the mother, the Mississippi flows,"

Of future women' there-of happiness in those high plateaus, ranging three thousand miles, warm and cold;

Of mighty inland cities yet unsurvey'd and unsuspected, (as I am also, and as it must be ;)

Of the new and good names—of the modern developments-of inalienable homesteads;

Of a free and original life there-of simple diet and clean and sweet blood;

Of litheness, majestic faces, clear eyes, and perfect physique

there;

Of immense spiritual results, future years, far west, each side of

the Anahuacs;

20

Of these leaves, well understood there, (being made for that area ;)

Of the native scorn of grossness and gain there;

(O it lurks in me night and day-What is gain, after all, to savageness and freedom?)

SONG AT SUNSET.

First published in 1860.

SPLENDOR of ended day, floating and filling me!
Hour prophetic-hour resuming the past!

1 Line 7 added in 1870.

2 1860 reads "Of departing-of the growth of a mightier race than any yet." 3 1860 adds "and westward still.”

Inflating my throat-you, divine average!

You, Earth and Life, till the last ray gleams, I sing.

Open mouth of my Soul, uttering gladness,
Eyes of my Soul, seeing perfection,
Natural life of me, faithfully praising things;
Corroborating forever the triumph of things.

Illustrious every one!

Jllustrious what we name space-sphere of unnumber'd spir

its;

ΙΟ

Illustrious the mystery of motion, in all beings, even the tiniest

insect

Illustrious the attribute of speech-the senses-the body; Illustrious the passing light! Illustrious the pale reflection on the new moon in the western sky!

Illustrious whatever I see, or hear, or touch, to the last.

Good in all,

In the satisfaction and aplomb of animals,

In the annual return of the seasons,

In the hilarity of youth,

In the strength and flush of manhood,

In the grandeur and exquisiteness of old age,
In the superb vistas of Death.

20

Wonderful to depart ;

Wonderful to be here!

The heart, to jet the all-alike and innocent blood!
To breathe the air, how delicious!

To speak! to walk! to seize something by the hand!

To prepare for sleep, for bed-to look on my rose-color'd flesh; To be conscious of my body, so satisfied,' so large;

To be this incredible God I am;

To have gone forth among other Gods-these men and women I love.

Wonderful how I celebrate you and myself!

How my thoughts play subtly at the spectacles around!

How the clouds pass silently overhead!

30

1 1860. For "satisfied" reads "amours." "Songs Before Parting" reads "happy."

How the earth darts on and on! and how the sun, moon, stars, dart on and on!

How the water sports and sings! (Surely it is alive!)

How the trees rise and stand up-with strong trunks-with branches and leaves !

(Surely there is something more in each of the trees-some living Soul.)

O amazement of things! even the least particle!

O spirituality of things!

O strain musical, flowing through ages and continents-now reaching me and America!

40

I take your strong chords-I intersperse them, and cheerfully pass them forward.

I too carol the sun, usher'd, or at noon, or, as now, setting, I too throb to the brain and beauty of the earth, and of all the growths of the earth,

I too have felt the resistless call of myself.

As I sail'd down the Mississippi,

As I wander'd over the prairies,

As I have lived-As I have look'd through my windows, my eyes,

As I went forth in the morning-As I beheld the light breaking in the east ;

As I bathed on the beach of the Eastern Sea, and again on the beach of the Western Sea;

As I roam'd the streets of inland Chicago-whatever streets I

have roam'd;

50

Or cities, or silent woods, or peace, or even amid the sights of war ;1

Wherever I have been, I have charged myself with contentment and triumph.

I sing the Equalities, modern or old,"

I sing the endless finales of things;

I say Nature continues-Glory continues;

I praise with electric voice;

For I do not see one imperfection in the universe;

And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe.

1 Line 51 added in 1870.

2" modern or old" added in 1870.

O setting sun! though the time has come,'

I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration.

60

WHEN I HEARD THE LEARN'D ASTRONOMER.

First published in "Drum-Taps," 1865.

WHEN I heard the learn'd astronomer;

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;

When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

TO RICH GIVERS.

First published in 1860.

WHAT you give me, I cheerfully accept,

A little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money-these, as I rendezvous with my poems;

A traveler's lodging and breakfast as I journey through The States -Why should I be ashamed to own such gifts? Why to advertise for them?

For I myself am not one who bestows nothing upon man and

woman;

For I bestow upon any man or woman the entrance to all the gifts of the universe."

SO LONG!

First published in 1860.
I

To conclude--I announce what comes after me;3

1 1860 reads "O when the time comes.''

21860 reads "For I know that what I bestow upon any man or woman is no less than the entrance," etc.

* After line I, 1860 reads 66 The thought must be promulged, that all I know at any time suffices for that time only-not subsequent time."