108 Transactions of the American Institute. 



x. 



And thou, high-towering One — America ! 



Thy swarm of offspring towering high — yet higher thee, above all towering, 



"With Victory on thy left, and at thy right hand Law; 



Thou Union, holding all — fusing, absorbing, tolerating all, 



Thee, ever thee, I bring. 



Thou — also thou, a world ! 



With all thy wide geographies, manifold, different, distant, 

 Rounding by thee in One — one common orbic language, 

 One common indivisible destiny and Union. 



XI. 



And by the spells which ye vouchsafe 

 To those, your ministers in earnest, 

 I here personify and call my themes, 

 To make them pass before ye. 



Behold, America! (And thou, ineffable Guest and Sister !) 

 For thee come trooping up thy waters and thy lands : 

 Behold ! thy fields and farms, thy far-off woods and mountains, 

 As in procession coming. 



Behold ! the sea itself ! 



And on its limitless, heaving breast, thy ships : 



See ! where their white sails, bellying in the wind, speckle the green and blue ! 



See ! thy steamers coming and going, steaming in or out of port! 



See ! dusky and undulating, their long pennants of smoke ! 



Behold, in Oregon, far in the north and west, 



Or in Maine, far in the north and east, thy cheerful axmen, 



Wielding all clay their axes ! 



Behold, on the lakes, thy pilots at their wheels — thy oarsmen ! 

 Behold how the ash writhes under those muscular arms ! 



There by the furnace, and there by the anvil, 



Behold thy sturdy blacksmiths, swinging their sledges ; 



Overhand so steady ~- overhand they turn and fall, with joyous clank, 



Like a tumult of laughter. 



Behold ! (for still the procession moves,) 



Behold, Mother of All, thy countless sailors, boatmen, coasters ! 



The myriads of thy young and old mechanics ! 



Mark — mark the spirit of invention everywhere — thy rapid patents, 



Thy continual workshops, foundries, risen or rising ; 



See, from their chimneys, how the tall flame-fires stream ! 



Mark, thy interminable farms, North, South, 



Thy wealthy Daughter-States, Eastern and Western, 



The varied products of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Georgia, Texas, and the rest ; 



