Why reclining, interrogating? Why myself and all drowsing? What deepening twilight! Scum floating atop of the waters! Who are they, as bats and night-dogs, askant in the Capitol? What a filthy Presidentiad! (O South, your torrid suns! O North, your Arctic freezings!) Are those really Congressmen? Are those the great Judges? Is that the President? Then I will sleep a while yet--for I see that these States sleep, for reasons. With gathering murk--with muttering thunder and lambent shoots, we all duly awake, South, North, East, West, inland and seaboard, we will surely awake. [Footnote 1: These were the three Presidentships of Polk; of Taylor, succeeded by Fillmore; and of Pierce;--1845 to 1857.] _TEARS._ Tears! tears! tears! In the night, in solitude, tears; On the white shore dripping, dripping, sucked in by the sand; Tears--not a star shining--all dark and desolate; Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head: --O who is that ghost?--that form in the dark, with tears? What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouched there on the sand? Streaming tears--sobbing tears--throes, choked with wild cries; O storm, embodied, rising, careering, with swift steps along the beach; O wild and dismal night-storm, with wind! O belching and desperate! O shade, so sedate and decorous by day, with calm countenance and regulated pace; But away, at night, as you fly, none looking--O then the unloosened ocean Of tears! tears! tears! _A SHIP._ 1. Aboard, at the ship's helm, A young steersman, steering with care. A bell through fog on a sea-coast dolefully ringing, An ocean-bell--O a warning bell, rocked by the waves. O you give good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-reefs ringing, Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-place. For, as on the alert, O steersman, you mind the bell's admonition, The bows turn,--the freighted ship, tacking, speeds away under her grey sails; The beautiful and noble ship, with all her precious wealth, speeds away gaily and safe. 2. But O the ship, the immortal ship! O ship aboard the ship! O ship of the body--ship of the soul--voyaging, voyaging, voyaging. _GREATNESS._ 1. Great are the myths--I too delight in them; Great are Adam and Eve--I too look back and accept them; Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets, women, sages, inventors, rulers, warriors, and priests. Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their follower; Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you sail, I sail, I weather it out with you, or sink with you. Great is Youth--equally great is Old Age--great are the Day and Night; Great is Wealth--great is Poverty--great is Expression--great is Silence. 2. Youth, large, lusty, loving--Youth, full of grace, force, fascination! Do you know that Old Age may come after you, with equal grace, force, fascination?