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Leaves of Grass (1881-82)
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AS I WALK THESE BROAD MAJESTIC DAYS.
AS I walk these broad majestic days of peace, |
(For the war, the struggle of blood finish'd, wherein, O terrific
Ideal,
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Against vast odds erewhile having gloriously won, |
Now thou stridest on, yet perhaps in time toward denser wars, |
Perhaps to engage in time in still more dreadful contests, dangers, |
Longer campaigns and crises, labors beyond all others,) |
Around me I hear that eclat of the world, politics, produce, |
The announcements of recognized things, science, |
The approved growth of cities and the spread of inventions. |
I see the ships, (they will last a few years,) |
The vast factories with their foremen and workmen, |
And hear the indorsement of all, and do not object to it. |
But I too announce solid things, |
Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing, |
Like a grand procession to music of distant bugles pouring,
triumphantly moving, and grander heaving in sight,
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They stand for realities—all is as it should be. |
What else is so real as mine? |
Libertad and the divine average, freedom to every slave on the
face of the earth,
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The rapt promises and luminè of seers, the spiritual world, these
centuries-lasting songs,
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And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announce-
ments of any.
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