Quicksand years that whirl me I know not whither,Your schemes, politics, fail, lines give way, substances mock and elude me,Only the theme I sing, the…

Proud music of the storm!Blast that careers so free, whistling across the prairies!Strong hum of forest tree-tops! Wind of the mountains!Personified dim shapes! you hidden…

Primeval my love for the woman I love,O bride! O wife! more resistless, more enduring than I can tell, the thought of you!Then separate, as…

When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the…

A batter’d, wreck’d old man,Thrown on this savage shore, far, far from home,Pent by the sea, and dark rebellious brows, twelve dreary months,Sore, stiff with…

What are those of the known, but to ascend and enter the Unknown?And what are those of life, but for Death?

Poets to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!Not to-day is to justify me, and answer what I am for;But you, a new brood, native, athletic,…

O to make the most jubilant poem!Even to set off these, and merge with these, the carols of Death.O full of music! full of manhood,…

You just maturing youth! You male or female!Remember the organic compact of These States,Remember the pledge of the Old Thirteen thenceforward to the rights, life,…

Come, my tan-faced children,Follow well in order, get your weapons ready;Have you your pistols? have you your sharp edged axes?Pioneers! O pioneers! For we cannot…