Poem by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass. 32. From Noon to Starry Night. 12. Mediums

They shall arise in the States,
They shall report Nature, laws, physiology, and happiness,
They shall illustrate Democracy and the kosmos,
They shall be alimentive, amative, perceptive,
They shall be complete women and men, their pose brawny and supple,
      their drink water, their blood clean and clear,
They shall fully enjoy materialism and the sight of products, they
      shall enjoy the sight of the beef, lumber, bread-stuffs, of
      Chicago the great city.
They shall train themselves to go in public to become orators and
      oratresses,
Strong and sweet shall their tongues be, poems and materials of
      poems shall come from their lives, they shall be makers and finders,
Of them and of their works shall emerge divine conveyers, to convey gospels,
Characters, events, retrospections, shall be convey'd in gospels,
      trees, animals, waters, shall be convey'd,
Death, the future, the invisible faith, shall all be convey'd.

1. Leaves of Grass. 32. From Noon to Starry Night. 9. Excelsior
2. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 11. The Wallabout Martyrs
3. Leaves of Grass. 5. Calamus. 38. That Shadow My Likeness
4. Leaves of Grass. 20. By the Roadside. 28. Offerings
5. Leaves of Grass. 21. Drum-Taps. 35. How Solemn As One by One [Washington City, 1865]

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