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When fathers, firm, unconstrained, open-eyed—When
breeds of the most perfect mothers denote
America,
Then to me ripeness and conclusion.

4.Yet not me, after all—let none be content with me,
I myself seek a man better than I am, or a woman
better than I am,
I invite defiance, and to make myself superseded,
All I have done, I would cheerfully give to be trod
under foot, if it might only be the soil of superior
poems.

5.I have established nothing for good,
I have but established these things, till things farther
onward shall be prepared to be established,
And I am myself the preparer of things farther
onward.

6.I have pressed through in my own right,
I have offered my style to every one—I have journeyed
with confident step,
While my pleasure is yet at the full, I whisper
So long,
And take the young woman's hand, and the young
man's hand, for the last time.

7.Once more I enforce you to give play to yourself—
and not depend on me, or on any one but
yourself,
Once more I proclaim the whole of America for each
individual, without exception.