Darest Thou Now, O Soul
1 DAREST thou now, O Soul, Walk out with me toward the Unknown Region, Where neither ground is for the feet, nor any path to follow? 2 No map, there, nor guide, Nor voice
A Farm-Picture
THROUGH the ample open door of the peaceful country barn, A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding; And haze, and vista, and the far horizon, fading away.
O Star of France
1 O STAR of France! The brightness of thy hope and strength and fame, Like some proud ship that led the fleet so long, Beseems to-day a wreck, driven by the gale-a mastless hulk;
Pensive on Her Dead Gazing, I Heard the Mother of All
PENSIVE, on her dead gazing, I heard the Mother of All, Desperate, on the torn bodies, on the forms covering the battle-fields gazing; (As the last gun ceased-but the scent of the powder-smoke linger’d;)
There was a Child went Forth
THERE was a child went forth every day; And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became; And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of
A Noiseless Patient Spider
A NOISELESS, patient spider, I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated; Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself; Ever unreeling them-ever
Carol of Occupations
1 COME closer to me; Push close, my lovers, and take the best I possess; Yield closer and closer, and give me the best you possess. This is unfinish’d business with me-How is it
To Think of Time
1 TO think of time-of all that retrospection! To think of to-day, and the ages continued henceforward! Have you guess’d you yourself would not continue? Have you dreaded these earth-beetles? Have you fear’d the
This Day, O Soul
THIS day, O Soul, I give you a wondrous mirror; Long in the dark, in tarnish and cloud it lay-But the cloud has pass’d, and the tarnish gone; … Behold, O Soul! it is
As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free
1 AS a strong bird on pinions free, Joyous, the amplest spaces heavenward cleaving, Such be the thought I’d think to-day of thee, America, Such be the recitative I’d bring to-day for thee. The
Unnamed Lands
NATIONS ten thousand years before These States, and many times ten thousand years before These States; Garner’d clusters of ages, that men and women like us grew up and travel’d their course, and pass’d
Song of the Broad-Axe
1 WEAPON, shapely, naked, wan! Head from the mother’s bowels drawn! Wooded flesh and metal bone! limb only one, and lip only one! Gray-blue leaf by red-heat grown! helve produced from a little seed
O Bitter Sprig! Confession Sprig!
O BITTER sprig! Confession sprig! In the bouquet I give you place also-I bind you in, Proceeding no further till, humbled publicly, I give fair warning, once for all. I own that I have
Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
1 OUT of the cradle endlessly rocking, Out of the mocking-bird’s throat, the musical shuttle, Out of the Ninth-month midnight, Over the sterile sands, and the fields beyond, where the child, leaving his bed,
Prairie States, The
A NEWER garden of creation, no primal solitude, Dense, joyous, modern, populous millions, cities and farms, With iron interlaced, composite, tied, many in one, By all the world contributed-freedom’s and law’s and thrift’s society,