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O South! O longings for my dear home! O soft and
sunny airs!
O pensive! O I must return where the palm grows
and the mocking-bird sings, or else I die!
O equality! O organic compacts! I am come to be
your born poet!
O whirl, contest, sounding and resounding! I am
your poet, because I am part of you;
O days by-gone! Enthusiasts! Antecedents!
O vast preparations for These States! O years!
O what is now being sent forward thousands of years
to come!
O mediums! O to teach! to convey the invisible faith!
To promulge real things! to journey through all The
States!
O creation! O to-day! O laws! O unmitigated
adoration!
O for mightier broods of orators, artists, and singers!
O for native songs! carpenter's, boatman's, plough
-man's songs! shoemaker's songs!
O haughtiest growth of time! O free and extatic!
O what I, here, preparing, warble for!
O you hastening light! O the sun of the world will
ascend, dazzling, and take his height—and you
too will ascend;
O so amazing and so broad! up there resplendent,
darting and burning;
O prophetic! O vision staggered with weight of light!
with pouring glories!
O copious! O hitherto unequalled!
O Libertad ! O compact! O union impossible to
dissever!
O my Soul! O lips becoming tremulous, powerless!
O centuries, centuries yet ahead!