Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

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As one by one withdraw the lofty actors,

From that great play on history's stage eterne,

That lurid, partial act of war and peace—of old and new con-
tending,

Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, and many a long
suspense;

All past—and since, in countless graves receding, mellowing,

Victor's and vanquish'd—Lincoln's and Lee's—now thou with
them,

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Man of the mighty days—and equal to the days!

Thou from the prairies!—tangled and many-vein'd and hard has
been thy part,

To admiration has it been enacted!

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