Poem by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass. 20. By the Roadside. 29. To The States [To Identify the 16th, 17th, or 18th Presidentiad]

Why reclining, interrogating? why myself and all drowsing?
What deepening twilight-scum floating atop of the waters,
Who are they as bats and night-dogs askant in the capitol?
What a filthy Presidentiad! (O South, your torrid suns! O North,
      your arctic freezings!)
Are those really Congressmen? are those the great Judges? is that
      the President?
Then I will sleep awhile yet, for I see that these States sleep, for
      reasons;
(With gathering murk, with muttering thunder and lambent shoots we
      all duly awake,
South, North, East, West, inland and seaboard, we will surely awake.)

1. Leaves of Grass. 21. Drum-Taps. 35. How Solemn As One by One [Washington City, 1865]
2. Leaves of Grass. 30. Whispers of Heavenly Death. 5. Yet, Yet, Ye Downcast Hours
3. Leaves of Grass. 35. Good-Bye My Fancy. 7. The Pallid Wreath
4. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 28. Old Salt Kossabone
5. Leaves of Grass. 32. From Noon to Starry Night. 9. Excelsior

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