Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/141

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Chants Democratic.
133

Where fierce men and women pour forth, as the sea
to the whistle of death pours its sweeping and
unript waves,
Where outside authority enters always after the
precedence of inside authority,
Where the citizen is always the head and ideal—and
President, Mayor, Governor, and what not, are
agents for pay,
Where children are taught from the jump that they
are to be laws to themselves, and to depend on
themselves,
Where equanimity is illustrated in affairs,
Where speculations on the Soul are encouraged,
Where women walk in public processions in the
streets, the same as the men,
Where they enter the public assembly and take
places the same as the men, and are appealed
to by the orators, the same as the men,
Where the city of the faithfulest friends stands,
Where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands,
Where the city of the healthiest fathers stands,
Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands,
There the greatest city stands.

11. How beggarly appear poems, arguments, orations,
before an electric deed!
How the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels
before a man's or woman's look!

12. All waits, or goes by default, till a strong being
appears;
A strong being is the proof of the race, and of the
ability of the universe,

12