Thou orb aloft full-dazzling! thou hot October noon! Flooding with sheeny light the gray beach sand, The sibilant near sea with vistas far and foam, And tawny streaks and shades and spreading blue;...
Here, take this gift! I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or General, One who should serve the good old cause, the great Idea, the progress and freedom of the race;...
Did YOU ask dulcet rhymes from me? Did you seek the civilian's peaceful and languishing rhymes? Did you find what I sang erewhile so hard to follow?...
Courage yet! my brother or my sister! Keep on! Liberty is to be subserv'd, whatever occurs; That is nothing, that is quell'd by one or two failures, or any number of failures,...
You who celebrate bygones! Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of the races, the life that has exhibited itself; Who have treated of man as the creature of politics, aggregates, rulers and priests;...
Thee for my recitative! Thee in the driving storm, even as now the snow the winter-day declining; Thee in thy panoply, thy measured dual throbbing, and thy beat convulsive;...
All you are doing and saying is to America dangled mirages, You have not learn'd of Nature, of the politics of Nature, you have not learn'd the great amplitude, rectitude, impartiality;...
Passing stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you, You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me, as of a dream,) I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,...
I heard that you ask'd for something to prove this puzzle, the New World, And to define America, her athletic Democracy; Therefore I send you my poems, that you behold in them what you wanted.
My spirit to yours, dear brother; Do not mind because many, sounding your name, do not understand you; I do not sound your name, but I understand you, (there are others also;)...
From all the rest I single out you, having a message for you: You are to die Let others tell you what they please, I cannot prevaricate, I am exact and merciless, but I love you There is no escape for you. ...
To Oratists, to male or female, Vocalism, measure, concentration, determination, and the divine power to use words. Are you full-lung'd and limber-lipp'd from long trial? from vigorous practice? from physique?...
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,...