Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892. Leaves of Grass Annexes: Sands at Seventy (1st Annex, 1888); Good-Bye My Fancy (2nd Annex, 1891); A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads (1888)
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WASHINGTON'S MONUMENT, FEBRUARY, 1885.
Ah, not this marble, dead and cold :
Far from its base and shaft expanding -- the round zones circling,
comprehending,
Thou, Washington, art all the world's, the continents' entire --
not yours alone, America,
Europe's as well, in every part, castle of lord or laborer's cot,
Or frozen North, or sultry South -- the African's -- the Arab's in
his tent,
Old Asia's there with venerable smile, seated amid her ruins;
(Greets the antique the hero new? 'tis but the same -- the heir
legitimate, continued ever,
The indomitable heart and arm -- proofs of the never-broken
line,
Courage, alertness, patience, faith, the same -- e'en in defeat de-
feated not, the same:)
Wherever sails a ship, or house is built on land, or day or night,
Through teeming cities' streets, indoors or out, factories or farms,
Now, or to come, or past -- where patriot wills existed or exist,
Wherever Freedom, pois'd by Toleration, sway'd by Law,
Stands or is rising thy true monument.
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