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 offer all to you.
‘Tis not for nothing, Death,
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, 10
For my last stand–my pealing, final cry.
fields gazing;(As the last gun ceased–but the scent of the powder-smoke linger’d;)As she call’d to her earth with mournful voice while she stalk’d:Absorb them well, O my earth, she cried–I charge you, lose not mysons! lose not an atom;And you streams, absorb them well, taking their dear blood;And you local spots, and you airs that…
The least insect or animal–the senses–eyesight–love;The first step, I say, aw’d me and pleas’d me so much,I have hardly gone, and hardly wish’d to go, any farther,But stop and loiter all the time, to sing it in extatic songs.
Flapping, flapping, flapping, flapping, by sounds, by voices clearer,By the wind’s voice and that of the drum,By the banner’s voice, and child’s voice, and sea’s voice, andfather’s voice,Low on the ground and high in the air,On the ground where father and child stand,In the upward air where their eyes turn,Where the banner at day-break is…
With whistling winds and music of the waves–the large imperiouswaves–In such,Or some lone bark, buoy’d on the dense marine,Where, joyous, full of faith, spreading white sails,She cleaves the ether, mid the sparkle and the foam of day, or undermany a star at night,By sailors young and old, haply will I, a reminiscence of the land,be…
(Full well they know that message in the darkness,Full well return, respond within their breasts, their brains, the sadreverberations,)The passionate toll and clang–city to city, joining, sounding,passing,Those heart-beats of a Nation in the night.
Parting track’d by arriving, perpetual payment of perpetual loan,Rich showering rain, and recompense richer afterward.Sprouts take and accumulate, stand by the curb prolific and vital,Landscapes projected masculine, full-sized and golden.
