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The trees have, rooted in the ground! the weeds of the sea have! the animals!

I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!

That the exquisite scheme is for it, and the nebulous float is for it, and the cohering is for it!

And all preparation is for it—and identity is for it — and life and materials are altogether for it!

WHISPERS OF HEAVENLY
DEATH

WHISPERS OF HEAVENLY DEATH

Whispers of heavenly death murmur'd I hear,
Labial gossip of night, sibilant chorals,

Footsteps gently ascending, mystical breezes wafted soft and low,

Ripples of unseen rivers, tides of a current flowing, forever flowing.

(Or is it the plashing of tears? the measureless waters of human tears?)

I see, just see skyward, great cloud-masses,

Mournfully slowly they roll, silently swelling and mixing, With at times a half-dimm'd sadden'd far-off star,

Appearing and disappearing.

(Some parturition rather, some solemn immortal birth; On the frontiers to eyes impenetrable,

Some soul is passing over.)

CHANTING THE SQUARE DEIFIC

I

Chanting the square deific, out of the One advancing, out of the sides,

Out of the old and new, out of the square entirely divine, Solid, four-sided, (all the sides needed,) from this side Jehovah am I,

Old Brahm I, and I Saturnius am;

Not time affects me - I am Time, old, modern as any, Unpersuadable, relentless, executing righteous judgments, As the Earth, the Father, the brown old Kronos, with laws, Aged beyond computation, yet ever new, ever with those mighty laws rolling.

Relentless I forgive no man

have that man's life;

whoever sins dies - I will

Therefore let none expect mercy have the seasons, grav

itation, the appointed days, mercy? no more have I, But as the seasons and gravitation, and as all the appointed days that forgive not,

I dispense from this side judgments inexorable without the least remorse.

2

Consolator most mild, the promis'd one advancing,

With gentle hand extended, the mightier God am I, Foretold by prophets and poets in their most rapt prophecies and poems,

From this side, lo! the Lord Christ gazes-lo! Hermes Ilo! mine is Hercules' face,

All sorrow, labor, suffering, I, tallying it, absorb in myself, Many times have I been rejected, taunted, put in prison, and crucified, and many times shall be again,

All the world have I given up for my dear brothers' and sisters' sake, for the soul's sake,

Wending my way through the homes of men, rich or poor, with the kiss of affection,

For I am affection, I am the cheer-bringing God, with hope and all-enclosing charity,

With indulgent words as to children, with fresh and sane words, mine only,

Young and strong I pass knowing well I am destin'd myself to an early death;

But my charity has no death-my wisdom dies not,

neither early nor late,

And my sweet love bequeath'd here and elsewhere never dies.

3

Aloof, dissatisfied, plotting revolt,

Comrade of criminals, brother of slaves,

Crafty, despised, a drudge, ignorant,

With sudra face and worn brow, black, but in the depths of my heart, proud as any,

Lifted now and always against whoever scorning assumes to rule me,

Morose, full of guile, full of reminiscences, brooding, with many wiles,

(Though it was thought I was baffled and dispel'd, and my wiles done, but that will never be,)

Defiant, I, Satan, still live, still utter words, in new lands duly appearing, (and old ones also,)

Permanent here from my side, warlike, equal with any, real as any,

Nor time nor change shall ever change me or my words.

Santa Spirita, breather, life,

4

Beyond the light, lighter than light,

Beyond the flames of hell, joyous, leaping easily above hell, Beyond Paradise, perfumed solely with mine own perfume, `Including all life on earth, touching, including God, including Saviour and Satan,

Ethereal, pervading all, (for without me what were all? what were God?)

Essence of forms, life of the real identities, permanent, positive, (namely the unseen,)

Life of the great round world, the sun and stars, and of man, I, the general soul,

Here the square finishing, the solid, I the most solid,
Breathe my breath also through these songs.

NIGHT ON THE PRAIRIES

Night on the prairies,

The supper is over, the fire on the ground burns low,
The wearied emigrants sleep, wrapt in their blankets;

I walk by myself—I stand look at the stars, which I think now I never realized before.

Now I absorb immortality and peace,

I admire death and test propositions.

How plenteous! how spiritual! how résumé !

The same old man and soul—the same old aspirations, and the same content.

I was thinking the day most splendid till I saw what the not-day exhibited,

I was thinking this globe enough till there sprang out so noiseless around me myriads of other globes.

Now while the great thoughts of space and eternity fill me I will measure myself by them,

And now touch'd with the lives of other globes arrived as far along as those of the earth,

Or waiting to arrive, or pass'd on farther than those of the earth,

I henceforth no more ignore them than I ignore my own life,

Or the lives of the earth arrived as far as mine, or waiting to arrive.

OI see now that life cannot exhibit all to me, as the day

cannot,

I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by death.

THE LAST INVOCATION

At the last, tenderly,

From the walls of the powerful fortress'd house,

From the clasp of the knitted locks, from the keep of the well-closed doors,

Let me be wafted.

Let me glide noiselessly forth;

With the key of softness unlock the locks

whisper,

Set ope

the doors O soul.

with a

THOU MOTHER WITH THY EQUAL BROOD 217 Tenderly -be not impatient,

(Strong is your hold O mortal flesh,

Strong is your hold O love.)

THOU MOTHER WITH THY EQUAL BROOD

Land tolerating all, accepting all, not for the good alone, all good for thee,

Land in the realms of God to be a realm unto thyself,
Under the rule of God to be a rule unto thyself.

(Lo, where arise three peerless stars,

To be thy natal stars my country, Ensemble, Evolution, Freedom,

Set in the sky of Law.)

Land of unprecedented faith, God's faith,

Thy soil, thy very subsoil, all upheav'd,

The general inner earth so long so sedulously draped over,

now hence for what it is bodily laid bare,

Open'd by thee to heaven's light for benefit or bale.

Not for success alone,

Not to fair-sail unintermitted always,

The storm shall dash thy face, the murk of war and worse than war shall cover thee all over,

(Wert capable of war, its tug and trials? be capable of peace, its trials,

For the tug and mortal strain of nations come at last in prosperous peace, not war;)

In many a smiling mask death shall approach beguiling thee, thou in disease shalt swelter,

The livid cancer spread its hideous claws, clinging upon thy breasts, seeking to strike thee deep within,

Consumption of the worst, moral consumption, shall rouge thy face with hectic,

But thou shalt face thy fortunes, thy diseases, and surmount them all,

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