Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/257

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Leaves of Grass.
249

I see the Great River, and the Falls of Niagara,
I see the Amazon and the Paraguay,
I see the four great rivers of China, the Amour, the
Yellow River, the Yiang-tse, and the Pearl;
I see where the Seine flows, and where the Loire, the
Rhone, and the Guadalquiver flow,
I see the windings of the Volga, the Dnieper, the
Oder,
I see the Tuscan going down the Arno, and the Venetian
along the Po,
I see the Greek seaman sailing out of Egina bay.

14.I see the site of the old empire of Assyria, and that
of Persia, and that of India,
I see the falling of the Ganges over the high rim of
Saukara.

15.I see the place of the idea of the Deity incarnated by
avatars in human forms,
I see the spots of the successions of priests on the earth
—oracles, sacrificers, brahmins, sabians, lamas,
monks, muftis, exhorters;
I see where druids walked the groves of Mona—I see
the mistletoe and vervain,
I see the temples of the deaths of the bodies of Gods—
I see the old signifiers.

16.I see Christ once more eating the bread of his last supper,
in the midst of youths and old persons,
I see where the strong divine young man, the Hercules,
toiled faithfully and long, and then died,
I see the place of the innocent rich life and hapless
fate of the beautiful nocturnal son, the full-limbed
Bacchus,