That strong and delicious word which, creeping to my feet. The sea whisper'd me. 1859. FROM STARTING FROM PAUMANOK I conn'd old times, I sat studying at the feet of the great masters; Now, if eligible, O that the great masters might return In the name of these States shall I scorn the antique? 5 Dead poets, philosophs, priests, Martyrs, artists, inventors, governments long since, Nations once powerful, now reduced, withdrawn, or desolate, I dare not proceed till I respectfully credit what you have I have perused it, own it is admirable (moving awhile Think nothing can ever be greater, nothing can ever deserve more than it deserves, Regarding it all intently a long while, then dismissing it, 1860. I HEAR IT WAS CHARGED AGAINST ME I hear it was charged against me that I sought to destroy institutions, But really I am neither for nor against institutions (What indeed have I in common with them? or what with the destruction of them?) Only I will establish in the Mannahatta, and in every city of these States, inland and seaboard, 10 And in the fields and woods, and above every keel little or large that dents the water, Without edifices or rules or trustees or any argument, The institution of the dear love of comrades. 1860. WHEN I HEARD THE LEARN'D ASTRONOMER When I heard the learn'd astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, 1865. PIONEERS! O PIONEERS Come, my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready; Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes? For we cannot tarry here; We must march, my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, Pioneers! O pioneers! O you youths, Western youths, So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, Have the elder races halted? Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond 5 5 5 ΤΟ the seas? We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson, All the past we leave behind, We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world; Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, We detachments steady throwing, Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep, We primeval forests felling, We the rivers stemming, vexing we and piercing deep the mines within, Pioneers! O pioneers! Colorado men are we; From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus, From Nebraska, from Arkansas, Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood intervein'd; 20 25 330 All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern, 35 Pioneers! O pioneers! O resistless restless race! O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all! Pioneers! O pioneers! Raise the mighty mother mistress, Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress (bend your heads all), Raise the fang'd and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon'd mistress, Pioneers! O pioneers! See, my children, resolute children, By those swarms upon our rear we must never yield or falter, Pioneers! O pioneers! 40 45 On and on the compact ranks, With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill'd, O to die advancing on! Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come? Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill'd, All the pulses of the world, Falling in they beat for us, with the Western movement beat, Life's involv'd and varied pageants, All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work, All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves, All the hapless silent lovers, All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked, I too with my soul and body, We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way, Through these shores amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing, Lo, the darting bowling orb! Lo, the brother orbs around, all the clustering suns and planets, Pioneers! O pioneers! These are of us, they are with us, All for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait We to-day's procession heading, we the route for travel clearing, behind; Pioneers! O pioneers! 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 O you daughters of the West! O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives! Pioneers! O pioneers! Minstrels latent on the prairies (Shrouded bards of other lands, you may rest, you have done your work), Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us, Not for delectations sweet, Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious, Pioneers! O pioneers! Do the feasters gluttonous feast? Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and bolted doors? Pioneers! O pioneers! Has the night descended? Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged nodding on our way? Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivious, Pioneers! O pioneers! Till with sound of trumpet, Far, far off the daybreak call—hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind! Swift! to the head of the army!-swift! spring to your places, Pioneers! O pioneers! 1865. CAVALRY CROSSING A FORD A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands, They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the sun-hark to the musical clank; Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses, loitering, stop to drink; 85 90 95 100 |