NOT the pilot has charged himself to bring his ship into port, though beaten back, and
many
times
baffled;
Not the path-finder, penetrating inland, weary and long,
By deserts parch’d, snows-chill’d, rivers wet, perseveres till he reaches his
destination,
More than I have charged myself, heeded or unheeded, to compose a free march for These
States,
To be exhilarating music to them-a battle-call, rousing to arms, if need
be-years,
centuries hence. 5
(Walt Whitman)
More Poetry from Walt Whitman:
- A Proadway Pageant (Walt Whitman Poems)
- A Boston Ballad, 1854 (Walt Whitman Poems)
- A Woman Waits For Me (Walt Whitman Poems)
- A March In The Ranks, Hard-prest (Walt Whitman Poems)
- A Riddle Song (Walt Whitman Poems)
- A child said, What is the grass? (Walt Whitman Poems)