< 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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