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 | Leaves of grass. |  |
YEARS OF THE UNPERFORM'D.
YEARS of the unperform'd! your
horizon rises — I see it
parting away for
more August dramas;
I see not America only — I see not only Liberty's nation, but other nations preparing;
I see tremendous entrances and exits — I see new com- binations — I see the solidarity of races;
I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the world's stage;
(Have the old forces played their parts? are the acts suitable to them closed?)
I see Freedom, completely arm'd, and victorious, and very haughty, with Law by her side, both issuing forth against the idea of caste;
— What historic denouements are these we so rapidly approach?
I see men marching and countermarching by swift mil lions;
I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocracies broken;
I see the landmarks of European kings removed;
I see this day the People beginning their landmarks, (all others give way;)
Never were such sharp questions ask'd as this day;
Never was average man, his soul, more energetic, more like a God;
Lo, how he urges and urges, leaving the masses no rest;
His daring foot is on land and sea everywhere — he col- onizes the Pacific, the archipelagoes;
With the steam-ship, the electric telegraph, the news- paper, the wholesale engines of war,
With these, and the world-spreading factories, he inter- links all geography, all lands;
— What whispers are these, O lands, running ahead of
you, passing
under the seas?
Are all nations communing? is there going to be but one heart to the globe?
Is humanity forming, en-masse? — for lo! tyrants trem- ble, crowns grow dim;
The earth, restive, confronts a new era, perhaps a gen- eral divine war;
No one knows what will happen next — such portents fill the days and nights;
Years prophetical! the space ahead as I walk, as I vain- ly try to pierce it, is full of phantoms;
Unborn deeds, things soon to be, project their shapes around me;
This incredible rush and heat — this strange extactic fever of dreams, O years!
Your dreams, O years, how they penetrate through me! (I know not whether I sleep or wake!)
The perform'd America and Europe grow dim, retiring in shadow behind me,
The unperform'd, more gigantic than ever, advance, ad- vance upon me.
I see not America only — I see not only Liberty's nation, but other nations preparing;
I see tremendous entrances and exits — I see new com- binations — I see the solidarity of races;
I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the world's stage;
(Have the old forces played their parts? are the acts suitable to them closed?)
I see Freedom, completely arm'd, and victorious, and very haughty, with Law by her side, both issuing forth against the idea of caste;
— What historic denouements are these we so rapidly approach?
I see men marching and countermarching by swift mil lions;
I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocracies broken;
I see the landmarks of European kings removed;
I see this day the People beginning their landmarks, (all others give way;)
Never were such sharp questions ask'd as this day;
Never was average man, his soul, more energetic, more like a God;
Lo, how he urges and urges, leaving the masses no rest;
His daring foot is on land and sea everywhere — he col- onizes the Pacific, the archipelagoes;
With the steam-ship, the electric telegraph, the news- paper, the wholesale engines of war,
With these, and the world-spreading factories, he inter- links all geography, all lands;
54a
Are all nations communing? is there going to be but one heart to the globe?
Is humanity forming, en-masse? — for lo! tyrants trem- ble, crowns grow dim;
The earth, restive, confronts a new era, perhaps a gen- eral divine war;
No one knows what will happen next — such portents fill the days and nights;
Years prophetical! the space ahead as I walk, as I vain- ly try to pierce it, is full of phantoms;
Unborn deeds, things soon to be, project their shapes around me;
This incredible rush and heat — this strange extactic fever of dreams, O years!
Your dreams, O years, how they penetrate through me! (I know not whether I sleep or wake!)
The perform'd America and Europe grow dim, retiring in shadow behind me,
The unperform'd, more gigantic than ever, advance, ad- vance upon me.
| Leaves of grass. | |