If I should need to name, O Western World!
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Presidential canvass and pending Election, 1884.
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| If I should need to name, O Western World! |
| your powerfulest scene to-day, |
| 'Twould not be you, Niagara—nor you, ye |
| limitless prairies—nor your huge |
| rifts of cañons, Colorado, |
| Nor you, Yosemite, with all your spasmic |
| geyser‑loops ascending to the skies, ap- |
| pearing and disappearing, |
| Nor Oregon's white cones—nor Huron's belt |
| of mighty lakes—nor Mississippi's stream: |
This seething hemisphere
,
's
^
humanity,
as now, I'd name— |
| the still small voice preparing— |
| America's choosing day, |
| (The heart of it not in the chosen—the act |
| itself the main, the great
quad[illegible]
quadrennial |
| choosing,) |
The stretch of
n
N
orth and
s
S
outh arouse
'
d— |
| sea‑board and inland—Texas to Maine, |
| The Prairie States, Vermont, Virginia, Cali- |
| fornia, |
The final ballot‑shower from
e
E
ast to
w
W
est— |
| the paradox and conflict, |
| The countless snow‑flakes falling—(a swordless |
| conflict, |
| |
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leaf 2 recto |
| Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, |
| or modern Napoleon's:) |
| Or good or ill ^
humanity——welcoming the darker odds, |
| the dross, the scene's debris—
:
|
| Foams and ferments the wine? it is
serves
to puri- |
| fy—while the heart pants, life glows; |
| These stormy gusts and winds waft precious |
| ships, |
| Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails. |
Walt Whitman
Camden, N.J., Oct. 25, 1884.
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