A Toi


YEARS of the modern! years of the unperform'd
Your horizon rises--I see it parting away for more august dramas
I see not America only--I see not only Liberty's nation, but other
nations preparing
I see tremendous entrances and exits--I see new combinations--I see
the solidarity of races
I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the world's
stage
(Have the old forces, the old wars, played their parts? are the acts
suitable to them closed?)
I see Freedom, completely arm'd, and victorious, and very haughty,
with Law on one side, and Peace on the other
A stupendous Trio, all issuing forth against the idea of caste
What historic denouements are these we so rapidly approach

Walt Whitman