Published Works In Whitman's Hand Life & Letters Commentary Resources Pictures & Sound About the Archive

contents   |   previous   |   next

View Page 254

TURN O LIBERTAD.

TURN O Libertad, for the war is over,

From it and all henceforth expanding, doubting no more, resolute,          sweeping the world,

Turn from lands retrospective recording proofs of the past,

From the singers that sing the trailing glories of the past,

From the chants of the feudal world, the triumphs of kings, slavery,          caste,

Turn to the world, the triumphs reserv'd and to come—give up          that backward world,

Leave to the singers of hitherto, give them the trailing past,

But what remains remains for singers for you—wars to come are          for you,

(Lo, how the wars of the past have duly inured to you, and the          wars of the present also inure;)

Then turn, and be not alarm'd O Libertad—turn your undying          face,

To where the future, greater than all the past,

Is swiftly, surely preparing for you.

contents   |   previous   |   next

Comments?

Published Works | In Whitman's Hand | Life & Letters | Commentary | Resources | Pictures & Sound

Support the Archive | About the Archive

Distributed under a Creative Commons License. Ed Folsom & Kenneth M. Price, editors.