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Walt Whitman · Leaves of Grass

Poem 318 of 382 · Sands at Seventy

Washington’s Monument February, 1885

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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 defeated 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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