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strong, the smoke, the deafening noise;

Away with your life of peace!ā€”your joys of peace!

Give me my old wild battle-life again!ā€

 

} Stronger Lessons

 

Have you learnā€™d lessons only of those who admired you, and were

tender with you, and stood aside for you?

Have you not learnā€™d great lessons from those who reject you, and

brace themselves against you? or who treat you with contempt,

or dispute the passage with you?

 

} A Prairie Sunset

 

Shot gold, maroon and violet, dazzling silver, emerald, fawn,

The earthā€™s whole amplitude and Natureā€™s multiform power consignā€™d

for once to colors;

The light, the general air possessā€™d by themā€”colors till now unknown,

No limit, confineā€”not the Western sky aloneā€”the high meridianā€”

North, South, all,

Pure luminous color fighting the silent shadows to the last.

 

} Twenty Years

 

Down on the ancient wharf, the sand, I sit, with a new-comer chatting:

He shippā€™d as green-hand boy, and sailā€™d away, (took some sudden,

vehement notion;)

Since, twenty years and more have circled round and round,

While he the globe was circling round and round, ā€”and now returns:

How changed the placeā€”all the old landmarks goneā€”the parents dead;

(Yes, he comes back to lay in port for goodā€”to settleā€”has a

well-fillā€™d purseā€”no spot will do but this;)

The little boat that scullā€™d him from the sloop, now held in leash I see,

I hear the slapping waves, the restless keel, the rocking in the sand,

I see the sailor kit, the canvas bag, the great box bound with brass,

I scan the face all berry-brown and beardedā€”the stout-strong frame,

Dressā€™d in its russet suit of good Scotch cloth:

(Then what the told-out story of those twenty years? What of the future?)

 

} Orange Buds by Mail from Florida

 

A lesser proof than old Voltaireā€™s, yet greater,

Proof of this present time, and thee, thy broad expanse, America,

To my plain Northern hut, in outside clouds and snow,

Brought safely for a thousand miles oā€™er land and tide,

Some three days since on their own soil live-sprouting,

Now here their sweetness through my room unfolding,

A bunch of orange buds by mall from Florida.

 

} Twilight

 

The soft voluptuous opiate shades,

The sun just gone, the eager light dispellā€™dā€”(I too will soon be

gone, dispellā€™d,)

A hazeā€”nirwanaā€”rest and nightā€”oblivion.

 

} You Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me

 

You lingering sparse leaves of me on winter-nearing boughs,

And I some well-shorn tree of field or orchard-row;

You tokens diminute and lornā€”(not now the flush of May, or July

clover-bloomā€”no grain of August now;)

You pallid banner-stavesā€”you pennants valuelessā€”you overstayā€™d of time,

Yet my soul-dearest leaves confirming all the rest,

The faithfulestā€”hardiestā€”last.

 

} Not Meagre, Latent Boughs Alone

 

Not meagre, latent boughs alone, O songs! (scaly and bare, like

eaglesā€™ talons,)

But haply for some sunny day (who knows?) some future spring, some

summerā€”bursting forth,

To verdant leaves, or sheltering shadeā€”to nourishing fruit,

Apples and grapesā€”the stalwart limbs of trees emergingā€”the fresh,

free, open air,

And love and faith, like scented roses blooming.

 

} The Dead Emperor

 

To-day, with bending head and eyes, thou, too, Columbia,

Less for the mighty crown laid low in sorrowā€”less for the Emperor,

Thy true condolence breathest, sendest out oā€™er many a salt sea mile,

Mourning a good old manā€”a faithful shepherd, patriot.

 

} As the Greekā€™s Signal Flame

 

As the Greekā€™s signal flame, by antique records told,

Rose from the hilltop, like applause and glory,

Welcoming in fame some special veteran, hero,

With rosy tinge reddening the land heā€™d served,

So I aloft from Mannahattaā€™s ship-fringed shore,

Lift high a kindled brand for thee, Old Poet.

 

} The Dismantled Ship

 

In some unused lagoon, some nameless bay,

On sluggish, lonesome waters, anchorā€™d near the shore,

An old, dismasted, gray and batterā€™d ship, disabled, done,

After free voyages to all the seas of earth, haulā€™d up at last and

hawserā€™d tight,

Lies rusting, mouldering.

 

} Now Precedent Songs, Farewell

 

Now precedent songs, farewellā€”by every name farewell,

(Trains of a staggering line in many a strange procession, waggons,

From ups and downsā€”with intervalsā€”from elder years, mid-age, or youth,)

ā€œIn Cabinā€™d Ships, or Thee Old Cause or Poets to Come

Or Paumanok, Song of Myself, Calamus, or Adam,

Or Beat! Beat! Drums! or To the Leavenā€™d Soil they Trod,

Or Captain! My Captain! Kosmos, Quicksand Years, or Thoughts,

Thou Mother with thy Equal Brood,ā€ and many, many more unspecified,

From fibre heart of mineā€”from throat and tongueā€”(My lifeā€™s hot

pulsing blood,

The personal urge and form for meā€”not merely paper, automatic type

and ink,)

Each song of mineā€”each utterance in the pastā€”having its long, long

history,

Of life or death, or soldierā€™s wound, of countryā€™s loss or safety,

(O heaven! what flash and started endless train of all! compared

indeed to that!

What wretched shred eā€™en at the best of all!)

 

} An Evening Lull

 

After a week of physical anguish,

Unrest and pain, and feverish heat,

Toward the ending day a calm and lull comes on,

Three hours of peace and soothing rest of brain.

 

} Old Ageā€™s Lambent Peaks

 

The touch of flameā€”the illuminating fireā€”the loftiest look at last,

Oā€™er city, passion, seaā€”oā€™er prairie, mountain, woodā€”the earth itself,

The airy, different, changing hues of all, in failing twilight,

Objects and groups, bearings, faces, reminiscences;

The calmer sightā€”the golden setting, clear and broad:

So much iā€™ the atmosphere, the points of view, the situations whence

we scan,

Broā€™t out by them aloneā€”so much (perhaps the best) unreckā€™d before;

The lights indeed from themā€”old ageā€™s lambent peaks.

 

} After the Supper and Talk

 

After the supper and talkā€”after the day is done,

As a friend from friends his final withdrawal prolonging,

Good-bye and Good-bye with emotional lips repeating,

(So hard for his hand to release those handsā€”no more will they meet,

No more for communion of sorrow and joy, of old and young,

A far-stretching journey awaits him, to return no more,)

Shunning, postponing severanceā€”seeking to ward off the last word

ever so little,

Eā€™en at the exit-door turningā€”charges superfluous calling backā€”

eā€™en as he descends the steps,

Something to eke out a minute additionalā€”shadows of nightfall deepening,

Farewells, messages lesseningā€”dimmer the forthgoerā€™s visage and form,

Soon to be lost for aye in the darknessā€”loth, O so loth to depart!

Garrulous to the very last.

 

[BOOKXXXV. GOOD-BYE MY FANCY]

 

} Sail out for Good, Eidolon Yacht!

 

Heave the anchor short!

Raise main-sail and jibā€”steer forth,

O little white-hullā€™d sloop, now speed on really deep waters,

(I will not call it our concluding voyage,

But outset and sure entrance to the truest, best, maturest;)

Depart, depart from solid earthā€”no more returning to these shores,

Now on for aye our infinite free venture wending,

Spurning all yet tried ports, seas, hawsers, densities, gravitation,

Sail out for good, eidolon yacht of me!

 

} Lingering Last Drops

 

And whence and why come you?

 

We know not whence, (was the answer,)

We only know that we drift here with the rest,

That we lingerā€™d and laggā€™dā€”but were wafted at last, and are now here,

To make the passing showerā€™s concluding drops.

 

} Good-Bye My Fancy

 

Good-bye my fancyā€”(I had a word to say,

But ā€˜tis not quite the timeā€”The best of any manā€™s word or say,

Is when its proper place arrivesā€”and for its meaning,

I keep mine till the last.)

 

} On, on the Same, Ye Jocund Twain!

 

On, on the same, ye jocund twain!

My life and recitative, containing birth, youth, mid-age years,

Fitful as motley-tongues of flame, inseparably twined and merged in

oneā€”combining all,

My single soulā€”aims, confirmations, failures, joysā€”Nor single soul alone,

I chant my nationā€™s crucial stage, (Americaā€™s, haply humanityā€™s)ā€”

the trial great, the victory great,

A strange eclaircissement of all the masses past, the eastern world,

the ancient, medieval,

Here, here from wanderings, strayings, lessons, wars, defeatsā€”here

at the west a voice triumphantā€”justifying all,

A gladsome pealing cryā€”a song for once of utmost pride and satisfaction;

I chant from it the common bulk, the general average horde, (the

best sooner than the worst)ā€”And now I chant old age,

(My verses, written first for forenoon life, and for the summerā€™s,

autumnā€™s spread,

I pass to snow-white hairs the same, and give to pulses

winter-coolā€™d the same;)

As here in careless trill, I and my recitatives, with faith and love,

wafting to other work, to unknown songs, conditions,

On, on ye jocund twain! continue on the same!

 

} MY 71st Year

 

After surmounting three-score and ten,

With all their chances, changes, losses, sorrows,

My parentsā€™ deaths, the vagaries of my life, the many tearing

passions of me, the war of ā€˜63 and ā€˜4,

As some old broken soldier, after a long, hot, wearying march, or

haply after battle,

To-day at twilight, hobbling, answering company roll-call, Here,

with vital voice,

Reporting yet, saluting yet the Officer over all.

 

} Apparitions

 

A vague mist hanging ā€˜round half the pages:

(Sometimes how strange and clear to the soul,

That all these solid things are indeed but apparitions, concepts,

non-realities.)

 

} The Pallid Wreath

 

Somehow I cannot let it go yet, funeral though it is,

Let it remain back there on its nail suspended,

With pink, blue, yellow, all blanchā€™d, and the white now gray and ashy,

One witherā€™d rose put years ago for thee, dear friend;

But I do not forget thee. Hast thou then faded?

Is the odor exhaled? Are the colors, vitalities, dead?

No, while memories subtly playā€”the past vivid as ever;

For but last night I woke, and in that spectral ring saw thee,

Thy smile, eyes, face, calm, silent, loving as ever:

So let the wreath hang still awhile within my eye-reach,

It is not yet dead to me, nor even pallid.

 

} An Ended Day

 

The soothing sanity and blitheness of completion,

The pomp and hurried contest-glare and rush are done;

Now triumph! transformation! jubilate!

 

} Old Ageā€™s Ship & Crafty Deathā€™s

 

From east and west across the horizonā€™s edge,

Two mighty masterful vessels sailers steal upon us:

But weā€™ll make race a-time upon the seasā€”a battle-contest yet! bear

lively there!

(Our joys of strife and derring-do to the last!)

Put on the old ship all her power to-day!

Crowd topsail, top-gallant and royal studding-sails,

Out challenge and defianceā€”flags and flaunting pennants added,

As we take to the openā€”take to the deepest, freest waters.

 

} To the Pending Year

 

Have I no weapon-word for theeā€”some message brief and fierce?

(Have I fought out and done indeed the battle?) Is there no shot left,

For all thy affectations, lisps, scorns, manifold silliness?

Nor for myselfā€”my own rebellious self in thee?

 

Down, down, proud gorge!ā€”though choking thee;

Thy bearded throat and high-borne forehead to the gutter;

Crouch low thy neck to eleemosynary gifts.

 

} Shakspere-Baconā€™s Cipher

 

I doubt it notā€”then more, far more;

In each old song bequeathā€™dā€”in every noble page or text,

(Differentā€”something unreckā€™d beforeā€”some unsuspected author,)

In every object, mountain, tree, and starā€”in every birth and life,

As part of eachā€”evolvā€™d from eachā€”meaning, behind the ostent,

A mystic cipher waits infolded.

 

} Long, Long Hence

 

After a long, long course, hundreds of years, denials,

Accumulations, rousā€™d love and joy and thought,

Hopes, wishes, aspirations, ponderings, victories, myriads of readers,

Coating, compassing, coveringā€”after agesā€™ and agesā€™ encrustations,

Then only may these songs reach fruition.

 

} Bravo, Paris Exposition!

 

Add to your show, before you close it, France,

With all the rest, visible, concrete, temples, towers, goods,

machines and ores,

Our sentiment wafted from many million heart-throbs, ethereal but solid,

(We grandsons and great-grandsons do not forget your grandsires,)

From fifty Nations and nebulous Nations, compacted, sent oversea to-day,

Americaā€™s applause, love, memories and good-will.

 

} Interpolation Sounds

 

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