University of Virginia Library

'Twas well, O soul! 'twas a good preparation you gave      me!
Now we advance our latent and ampler hunger to fill;
Now we go forth to receive what the earth and the sea      never gave us;
Not through the mighty woods we go, but through the      mightier cities;
Something for us is pouring now, more than Niagara      pouring;
Torrents of men, (sources and rills of the Northwest, are      you indeed inexhaustible?)
What, to pavements and homesteads here — what were      those storms of the mountains and sea?
What, to passions I witness around me to-day? Was      the sea risen?
Was the wind piping the pipe of death under the black      clouds?
Lo! from deeps more unfathomable, something more      deadly and savage;
Manhattan, rising, advancing with menacing front —      Cincinnati, Chicago, unchain'd;
— What was that swell I saw on the ocean? behold      what comes here!
How it climbs with daring feet and hands! how it      dashes!
How the true thunder bellows after the lightning! how      bright the flashes of lightning!
How DEMOCRACY, with desperate vengeful port strides      on, shown through the dark by those flashes of      lightning!
(Yet a mournful wail and low sob I fancied I heard      through the dark,
In a lull of the deafening confusion.)