< Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu
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Chants Democratic.
:Where fierce men and women pour forth, as the sea to the whistle of death pours its sweeping and unript waves,
Where outside authority enters always after the precedence of inside authority,
Where the citizen is always the head and ideal—and President, Mayor, Governor, and what not, are agents for pay,
Where children are taught from the jump that they are to be laws to themselves, and to depend on themselves,
Where equanimity is illustrated in affairs,
Where speculations on the Soul are encouraged,
Where women walk in public processions in the streets, the same as the men,
Where they enter the public assembly and take places the same as the men, and are appealed to by the orators, the same as the men,
Where the city of the faithfulest friends stands,
Where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands,
Where the city of the healthiest fathers stands,
Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands,
There the greatest city stands.

11. How beggarly appear poems, arguments, orations, before an electric deed!

How the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels before a man's or woman's look!

12. All waits, or goes by default, till a strong being appears;

A strong being is the proof of the race, and of the ability of the universe,
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