University of Virginia Library

52  Whoever you are! to you endless announcements.
53  Daughter of the lands, did you wait for your poet?
Did you wait for one with a flowing mouth and in-     dicative hand?
54  Toward the male of The States, and toward the      female of The States,
Live words — words to the lands.
55  O the lands! interlink'd, food-yielding lands!
Land of coal and iron! Land of gold! Lands of      cotton, sugar, rice!
Land of wheat, beef, pork! Land of wool and hemp!      Land of the apple and grape!
Land of the pastoral plains, the grass-fields of the      world! Land of those sweet-air'd interminable      plateaus!
Land of the herd, the garden, the healthy house of      adobie!
Lands where the northwest Columbia winds, and      where the southwest Colorado winds!
Land of the eastern Chesapeake! Land of the Dela-     ware!
Land of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan!
Land of the Old Thirteen! Massachusetts land! Land      of Vermont and Connecticut!
Land of the ocean shores! Land of sierras and peaks!
Land of boatmen and sailors! Fishermen's land!
Inextricable lands! the clutch'd together! the passion-     ate ones!
The side by side! the elder and younger brothers!      the bony-limb'd!
The great women's land! the feminine! the ex-     perienced sisters and the inexperienced sisters!
Far breath'd land! Arctic braced! Mexican breez'd!      the diverse! the compact!
The Pennsylvanian! the Virginian! the double Caro-     linian!
O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations!      O I at any rate include you all with perfect love!
I cannot be discharged from you! not from one, any      sooner than another!
O Death! O for all that, I am yet of you, unseen, this      hour, with irrepressible love,
Walking New England, a friend, a traveler,
Splashing my bare feet in the edge of the summer      ripples, on Paumanok's sands,
Crossing the prairies — dwelling again in Chicago —      dwelling in every town,
Observing shows, births, improvements, structures,      arts,
Listening to the orators and the oratresses in public      halls,
Of and through The States, as during life — each man      and woman my neighbor,
The Louisianian, the Georgian, as near to me, and I      as near to him and her,
The Mississippian and Arkansian yet with me — and      I yet with any of them;
Yet upon the plains west of the spinal river — yet in      my house of adobie,
Yet returning eastward — yet in the Sea-Side State, or      in Maryland,
Yet Kanadian, cheerily braving the winter — the snow      and ice welcome to me,
Yet a true son either of Maine, or of the Granite State,      or of the Narragansett Bay State, or of the      Empire State;
Yet sailing to other shores to annex the same — yet      welcoming every new brother;
Hereby applying these leaves to the new ones, from      the hour they unite with the old ones;
Coming among the new ones myself, to be their com-     panion and equal — coming personally to you      now;
Enjoining you to acts, characters, spectacles, with      me.