From Election Day, November 1884
If I should need to name, O Western
World, your
powerfulest scene and
show,
'Twould not be you, Niagara--nor you, ye limitless
'Twould not be you, Niagara--nor you, ye limitless
prairies--nor your huge
rifts of canyons, Colorado,
Nor you, Yosemite--nor Yellowstone, with all its
Nor you, Yosemite--nor Yellowstone, with all its
spasmic geyser-loops
ascending to the skies,
appearing and
disappearing,
Nor Oregon's white cones--nor Huron's belt of mighty
Nor Oregon's white cones--nor Huron's belt of mighty
lakes--nor Mississippi's
stream:
--This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now,
--This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now,
I'd name--the still
small voice vibrating--America's
choosing day,
(The heart of it not in the chosen--the act itself the
(The heart of it not in the chosen--the act itself the
main, the quadriennial
choosing,)
The stretch of North and South arous'd--sea-board
The stretch of North and South arous'd--sea-board
and inland--Texas to
Maine--the Prairie States--
Vermont, Virginia,
California,
The final ballot-shower from East to West--the
The final ballot-shower from East to West--the
paradox and conflict,
The countless snow-flakes falling--(a swordless
The countless snow-flakes falling--(a swordless
conflict,
Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern
Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern
Napoleon's:) the peaceful
choice of all…
Walt Whitman
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