Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/26

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18
Leaves of Grass.

Lands where the northwest Columbia winds, and
where the southwest Colorado winds!
Land of the Chesapeake! Land of the Delaware!
Land of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan!
Land of the Old Thirteen! Massachusetts land!
Land of Vermont and Connecticut!
Land of many oceans! Land of sierras and peaks!
Land of boatmen and sailors! Fishermen's land!
Inextricable lands! the clutched together! the
passionate lovers!
The side by side! the elder and younger brothers!
the bony-limbed!
The great women's land! the feminine! the experienced
sisters and the inexperienced sisters!
Far breath'd land! Arctic braced! Mexican breezed!
the diverse! the compact!
The Pennsylvanian! the Virginian! the double
Carolinian!
O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations!
O I cannot be discharged from you!
O Death! for all that, I am yet of you, unseen,
this hour, with irrepressible love,
Walking New England, a friend, a traveller,
Splashing my bare feet in the edge of the summer
ripples, on Paumanok's sands.
Crossing the prairies—dwelling again in Chicago—
dwelling in many towns,
Observing shows, births, improvements, structures,
arts,
Listening to the orators and the oratresses in public
halls,
Of and through The States, as during life— each
man and woman my neighbor,