Section 31

Growths growing from him to offset the growth of pine, cedar, hemlock, live-oak, locust, chestnut, hickory, cotton- wood, orange, magnolia,°
Tangles as tangled in him as any cane-brake or swamp,
1 1855 ’60 read ‘¢ carelessly faithful,’ etc.
2 -1856’60. For ‘‘ Land of lands’’ read ‘¢ Race of Races.’’
31856 ’60 read ‘‘Making its geography, cities, beginnings, events,
glories, defections, diversities, vocal in him.’?
* After line 80, 1856 reads ‘‘ The blue breadth over the sea off Massachusetts and Maine, or over the Virginia and Maryland sea, or over inland Cham- plain, Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, Superior, or over the Texan, Mexican, Cuban, Floridian seas, or over the seas of California and Oregon, not tallying the breadth of the waters below, more than the breadth of above and below is tallied in him.’’
2 1856 60 add “cypress, lime-tree, tulip-tree, cactus, tamarind, persim-
mon,
MARCHES NOW THE WAR IS OVER 295
He likening sides and peaks of mountains, forests coated with northern transparent ice,’
Off him pasturage, sweet and natural as savanna, upland, prairie, Through him flights, whirls, screams, answering those of the fish-hawk, mocking-bird, night-heron, and eagle ;?
His spirit surrounding his country’s spirit, unclosed to good and evil,
Surrounding the essences of real things, old times and present times,
Surrounding just found shores, islands, tribes of red aborigines, 90
Weather-beaten vessels, landings, settlements, embryo® stature and muscle,
The haughty defiance of the Year 1—war, peace, the formation of the Constitution,
The separate States, the simple, elastic scheme, the immigrants,
The Union, always swarming with blatherers, and always sure* and impregnable,
The unsurvey’d interior, log houses, clearings, wild animals, hunters, trappers ;
Surrounding the multiform agriculture, mines, temperature, the gestation of new States,
Congress convening every Twelfth-month, the members duly coming up from the uttermost parts ;
Surrounding the noble character of mechanics and farmers, especially the young men,
Responding their manners, speech, dress, friendships—the gait they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors,
The freshness and candor of their physiognomy, the copiousness
and decision of their phrenology, 100 The picturesque looseness of their carriage,* their fierceness when wrong’ d,
The fluency of their speech, their delight in music, their curi- osity, good temper, and open-handedness—the whole
composite make, ®
1856 ’60 add ‘and icicles hanging from the boughs.’’
2 1856 reads ‘‘ Through him flights, songs, screams, answering those of the wild pigeon, high-hold, orchard-oriole, coot, surf-duck, red-snouldered hawk, fish-hawk, white-ibis, indian-hen, cat-owl, water-pheasant, qua- bird, pied-sheldrake, mocking-bird, buzzard, condor, night-heron, eagle.”’
185660. For “ embryo’’ read ‘the rapid.”’
1856760. For ‘‘sure’’ read ‘“ calm.”’
1656 ’60 add ‘their deathless attachment to freedom,”’
«¢ The whole composite make’? added in 1860.
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206 LEAVES OF GRASS
The prevailing ardor and enterprise, the large amativeness,
The perfect equality of the female with the male, the fluid movement of the population,
The superior marine, free commerce, fisheries, whaling, gold- digging,
Wharf-hemm’d cities, railroad and steamboat lines, intersecting all points,
Factories, mercantile life, labor-saving machinery, the north- east, north-west, south-west,
Manhattan firemen, the Yankee swap, southern plantation life,
Slavery—the murderous, treacherous conspiracy to raise it upon the ruins of all the rest ;
On and on to the grapple with it—Assassin! then your life or ours be the stake—and respite no more. IIo
7
(Lo! high toward heaven, this day,
Libertad! from the conqueress’ field return’d,
I mark the new aureola around your head ;
No more of soft astral, but dazzling and fierce,
With war’s flames, and the lambent lightnings playing,
And your port immovable where you stand ;
With still the imextinguishable glance, and the clench’d and lifted fist,
And your foot on the neck of the menacing one, the scorner, utterly crush’d beneath you ;
The menacing, arrogant one, that strode and advanced with his senseless scorn, bearing the murderous knife ;
—Lo! the wide swelling one, the braggart, that would yesterday
do so much! 120 To-day a carrion dead and damn’d, the despised of all the earth !
An offal rank, to the dunghill maggots spurn’d. )?
8
*Others take finish, but the Republic is ever constructive, and ever’ keeps vista ;
1 185660. For lines 109-110, read ‘‘Slavery the tremulous spreading of hands to shelter it—the stern opposition to it, which ceases only when it ceases.’’
2 Lines 111-122 added in ‘‘ Songs Before Parting.”
$ Before line 123, 1856 ’60 read ‘ For these and the like, their own voices! For these, space ahead !”
MARCHES NOW THE WAR IS OVER 297
Others adorn the past—but you, O days of the present, I adorn you!
O days of the future, I believe in you! I isolate myself for your sake ;*
O America, because you build for mankind, I build for you !
O well-beloved stone-cutters! I lead them who plan with de- cision and science,
I lead the present with friendly hand toward the future.
Bravas to all impulses sending sane children to the next age !? But damn that which spends itself,? with no thought of the stain, pains, dismay, feebleness it is bequeathing. 130
2
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario’s shore,*
I heard the voice arising, demanding bards ;°
By them, all native and grand—by them alone can The States be fused into the compact organism of a Nation.®
To hold men together by paper and seal, or by compulsion, is no account ; ‘ That only holds men together which aggregates all in a living principle, as the hold of the limbs of the body, or the
fibres of plants.
Of all races and eras, These States, with veins full of poetical stuff, most need poets, and are to have the greatest, and use them the greatest ;
Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as
their poets shall.
(Soul of love, and tongue of fire! _Eye to pierce the deepest deeps, and sweep the world ! —Ah, mother! prolific and iull in all besides—yet how long barren, barren ?)’ 140
1 «¢] isolate myself for your sake’? added in ‘‘ Songs Before Parting.”
1856 ’60 read “ Bravas to states whose semetic impulses send wholesome children to the next age !”’
1856 ’60 and “ Songs Before Parting’’ add ‘on flaunters and dallyers,’’
Line 131 added in 1870,
Line 132 added in ‘‘Songs Before Parting.” —
1856 ’60 read ‘‘ By great bards only can series of peoples and States be fused into the compact organism of one nation.”’
7 Lines 138-40 added in ‘* Songs Before Parting.”’
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298 LEAVES OF GRASS
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Of These States,’ the poet is the equable man,
Not in him, but off from him, things are grotesque, eccentric, fail of their full returns,
Nothing out of its place is good, nothing in its place is bad,
He bestows on every object or quality its fit proportion, neither more nor less,
He is the arbiter of the diverse, he is the key,
He is the equalizer of his age and land,
He supplies what wants supplying—he checks what wants check- ing,
In peace, out of him speaks the spirit of peace, large, rich, thrifty, building populous towns, encouraging agriculture, arts, commerce, lighting the study of man, the Soul, health, immortality, government ;
In war, he is the best backer of the war—he fetches artillery as good as the engineer’s—he can make every word he speaks draw blood ;
The years straying toward infidelity, he withholds by his steady
faith, 150 He is no argurer, he is judgment—(Nature accepts him abso- lutely ;)?
He judges not as the judge judges, but as the sun falling round a helpless thing ;
As he sees the farthest, he has the most faith,
His thoughts are the hymns of the praise of things,
In the dispute on God and eternity he is silent,
He sees eternity less like a play with a prologue and denoue- ment,
He sees eternity in men and women—he does not see men and women as dreams or dots.*
1 For ‘‘Of These States,” 1856 ’60 and ‘‘Songs Before Parting’’ read “¢ Of mankind.”’ 2 « (Nature accepts him absolutely ;)’’ added in ‘* Songs Before Parting.’ 3 After line 157, 1856 reads ‘‘ An American literat fills his own place, He justifies science—did you think the demonstrable less divine than the mythical ? He stands by liberty according to the compact of the first day of the first year of These States, He concentres in the real body and soul, and in the pleasure of things, He possesses the superiority of genuineness over fiction and romance, As he emits himself, facts are showered over with light. The day-light is lit with more volatile light—the deep between the setting and rising sun goes deeper many fold.
MARCHES NOW THE WAR IS OVER 299
For the great Idea, the idea of perfect and free individuals,
For that idea the bard walks in advance, leader of leaders,}
The attitude of him cheers up slaves and horrifies foreign despots. 160
Without extinction is Liberty! without retrograde is Equality !
They live in the feelings of young men, and the best women ;
Not for nothing have the indomitable heads of the earth been always ready to fall for Liberty.
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For the great Idea! That, O my brethren—that is the mission of Poets.*®
Songs of stern defiance, ever ready,‘
Songs of the rapid arming, and the march,
The flag of peace quick-folded, and instead, the flag we know, Warlike flag of the great Idea.
(Angry cloth I saw there leaping ! 170
I stand again in leaden rain, your flapping folds saluting ;
I sing you over all, flying, beckoning through the fight—O the hard-contested fight !
O the cannons ope their rosy-flashing muzzles! the hurtled balls
scream !
Each precise object, condition, combination, process, exhibits a beauty—the multiplication table its, the old age its, the carpenter’s trade its, the grand-opera its,
The huge-hulled clean-shaped Manhattan clipper at sea, under steam or full sail, gleams with unmatched beauty,
The national circles and large harmonies of government gleam with theirs,
The commonest definite intentions and actions with theirs,’’
1 For lines 158-9, 1856’60 read ‘‘Of the idea of perfect individuals, the idea of These States, their bards walk in advance, leaders of leacers.”’ 2 After line 163, 1856 reads ‘‘ Language-using controls the rest ;
Wonderful is language !
Wondrous the English language, language of live men,
Language of ensemble, powerful language of resistance,
Language of a proud and melancholy stock, and of all who aspire,
Language of growth, faith, self-esteem, rudeness, justice, friendliness, prudence, decision, exactitude, courage,
Language to well-nigh express the unexpressible,
Language for the modern, language for America.”
3 Lines 164-5 added in “ Songs Before Parting.”’ ae 4 Lines 166-178 added in “‘Songs Before Parting,’’ in which edition line 166 reads : ‘‘ With their poems of stern defiance ever ready.”
300 LEAVES OF GRASS
The battle-front forms amid the smoke—the volleys pour inces- sant from the line ;
Hark! the ringing word, Charge /—now the tussle, and the furious maddening yells ;
Now the corpses tumble curl’d upon the ground,
Cold, cold in death, for precious life of you,
Angry cloth I saw there leaping. )
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Are you he who would assume a place to teach, or be a poet here in The States ?? The place is august—the terms obdurate. 180
Who would assume to teach here, may well prepare himself, body and mind,?
He may well survey, ponder, arm, fortify, harden, make lithe, himself,
He shall surely be question’d beforehand by me with many and stern questions.
Who are you, indeed, who would talk or sing® to America ?
Have you studied out the land, its idioms and men?
Have you learn’d the physiology, phrenology, politics, geog- raphy, pride, freedom, friendship, of the land? its sub- stratums and objects?
Have you consider’d the organic compact of the first day of the first year of Independence,* sign’d by the Commissioners, ratified by The States, and read by Washington at the head of the army?
Have you possess’d yourself of the Federal Constitution ?°
Do you see who have left all feudal processes and poems behind them, and assumed the poems and processes of Democ- racy ?%
1 Lines 179-80 added in 1860, in which edition for line 179 read ** Are You indeed for Liberty ?
Are you a man who would assume a place to teach here, or be a poet here ?”?
2 1856 reads
3 “or sing’? added in 1860.
a “« Independence of The States ?’’ ends the line in 1856, balance added in
1600.
° After line 187, 1856 ’60 add ‘* Do you acknowledge liberty with audible and absolute acknowledgment, and set slavery at naught for life and death ?”’
6 1856 ’60 read ‘* Do you see who have left described processes and poems behind them, and assumed new ones ?”’
MARCHES NOW THE WAR IS OVER 301
‘Ave you faithful to things? do you teach as the land and sea, the bodies of men, womanhood, amativeness, angers,! teach ? 190
Have you sped through fleeting customs, popularities ??
Can you hold your hand against all seductions, follies, whirls, fierce contentions? are you very strong? = are you really of the whole people?
Are you not of some coterie? some school or mere religion ?
Are you done with reviews and criticisms of life? animating now to life itself?
Have you vivified* yourself from the maternity of These States ?®
Have you too the old, ever-fresh forbearance and impartiality ?
Do you hold the like love for those hardening to maturity; for the last-born ? little and big? and for the errant?
What is this you bring my America?
Is it uniform with. my country ?
Is it not something that has been better told or done before? 200
Have you not imported this, or the spirit of it, in some ship?
Is it not a mere tale? a rhyme? a prettiness? is the good old cause in it ?°
Has it not dangled long at the heels of the poets, politicians, literats, of enemies’ lands?
Does it not assume that what is notoriously gone is still here ?
Does it answer universal needs? will it improve manners?
Does it sound, with trumpet-voice, the proud victory of the Union, in that secession war! 2
Can your performance face the open fields and the seaside?
Will it absorb into me as I absorb food, air*—to appear again in my strength, gait, face?
Have real employments contributed to it? original makers—not mere amanuenses ?
Does it meet modern discoveries, calibers, facts face to face ?? 210
1856 ’60 add ‘excesses, crimes.’ 1856 ’60 read “‘ through customs, ee popularities ?”’ ‘are you very strong ?’’ etc., added in 1860. 1856. For ‘ After line 195, 1856 reads ‘‘ Have you sucked the nipples of the breasts of the mother of many children ?”’ 6 7 Line 206 added in 1870. 8 1856 ’60 add ‘‘ nobility, meanness.’ 9 After line 210, 1856 adds ‘* Does it ee a me? America ? the Soul? to- day?’ 1860. For “ America”? reads “ Democracy.”’
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302 LEAVES OF GRASS
What does it mean to me? to American persons, progresses, cities? Chicago, Kanada, Arkansas? the planter, Yan- kee, Georgian, native, immigrant, sailors, squatters, old States, new States ?
Does it encompass all The States, and the unexceptional rights of all the men and women of the earth ? (the genital im- pulse of These States ;)
Does it see behind the apparent custodians, the real custodians, standing, menacing, silent—the mechanics, Manhattan- ese, western men, southerners, significant alike in their apathy, and in the promptness of their love?
Does it see what finally befalls, and has always finally befallen, each temporizer, patcher, outsider, partialist, alarmist, in- fidel, who has ever ask’d anything of America?
What mocking and scornful negligence ?
The track strew’d with the dust of skeletons ;
By the roadside others disdainfully toss’d.
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Rhymes and rhymers pass away—poems distill’d from foreign poems pass away,
The swarms of reflectors and the polite pass, and leave ashes ;
Admirers, importers, obedient persons, make but the soul of lit- erature ; 220
America justifies itself, give it time—no disguise can deceive it, or conceal from it—it is impassive enough,
Only toward the likes of itself will it advance to meet them,
If its poets appear, it will in due time advance to meet them— there is no fear of mistake,
(The proof of a poet shall be sternly deferr’d, till his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorb’d it. )
He masters whose spirit masters—he tastes sweetest who results sweetest in the long run ;*
The blood of the brawn beloved of time is unconstraint ;
In the need of poems, philosophy, politics, manners, engineer- ing, an appropriate native grand-opera, shipcraft, any craft, he or she is gréatest who contributes the greatest original practical example.
Already a nonchalant breed, silently emerging, appears on the streets, ?
1 1856 ’60 read “ fills the houses and streets.”
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People’s lips salute only doers, lovers, satisfiers, positive knowers ;
There will shortly be no more priests—I say! their work is done, ° 230
Death is without emergencies here, but life is perpetual emer- gencies here,
Are your body, days, manners, superb? after death you shall be superb ;
Justice, health, self-esteem, clear the way with irresistible power ;?
How dare you place anything before a man ?*
14 Fall behind me, States ! A man before all—myself, typical before all.
Give me the pay I have served for !
Give me to sing the song of the great Idea !* take all the rest ;