Part 2 (2/2)

Under foot the divine soil--over head the sun.

See, revolving, the globe; The ancestor-continents, away, grouped together; The present and future continents, north and south, with the isthmus between.

See, vast trackless s.p.a.ces; As in a dream, they change, they swiftly fill; Countless ma.s.ses debouch upon them; They are now covered with the foremost people, arts, inst.i.tutions, known.

See, projected through time, For me an audience interminable.

With firm and regular step they wend--they never stop, Successions of men, Americanos, a hundred millions; One generation playing its part, and pa.s.sing on, Another generation playing its part, and pa.s.sing on in its turn, With faces turned sideways or backward towards me, to listen, With eyes retrospective towards me.

3.

Americanos! conquerors! marches humanitarian; Foremost! century marches! Libertad! ma.s.ses!

For you a programme of chants.

Chants of the prairies; Chants of the long-running Mississippi, and down to the Mexican Sea; Chants of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota; Chants going forth from the centre, from Kansas, and thence, equidistant, Shooting in pulses of fire, ceaseless, to vivify all.

4.

In the Year 80 of the States,[3]

My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here, from parents the same, and their parents the same, I, now thirty-six years old, in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death.

Creeds and schools in abeyance, (Retiring back a while, sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten.)

I harbour, for good or bad--I permit to speak, at every hazard-- Nature now without check, with original energy.

5.

Take my leaves, America! take them South, and take them North!

Make welcome for them everywhere, for they are your own offspring; Surround them, East and West! for they would surround you; And you precedents! connect lovingly with them, for they connect lovingly with you.

I conned old times; I sat studying at the feet of the great masters: Now, if eligible, O that the great masters might return and study me!

In the name of these States, shall I scorn the antique?

Why, these are the children of the antique, to justify it.

6.

Dead poets, philosophs, priests, Martyrs, artists, inventors, governments long since, Language-shapers on other sh.o.r.es, Nations once powerful, now reduced, withdrawn, or desolate, I dare not proceed till I respectfully credit what you have left, wafted hither: I have perused it--own it is admirable, (moving awhile among it;) Think nothing can ever be greater--nothing can ever deserve more than it deserves; Regarding it all intently a long while, then dismissing it, I stand in my place, with my own day, here.

Here lands female and male; Here the heirs.h.i.+p and heiress-s.h.i.+p of the world--here the flame of materials; Here spirituality, the translatress, the openly-avowed, The ever-tending, the finale of visible forms; The satisfier, after due long-waiting, now advancing, Yes, here comes my mistress, the Soul.

7.

<script>