favourites, The artillery, the silent cannons bright as gold, drawn along, rumble lightly over the stones (Silent cannons, soon to cease your silence, Soon unlimber'd to begin the red business); All the mutter of preparation, all the determin'd arming, The hospital service, the lint, bandages, and medicines, The women volunteering for nurses, the work begun for in earnest, no mere parade now; War! an arm'd race is advancing, the welcome for battle, no turning away; War! be it weeks, months, or years, an arm'd race is advancing to welcome it. Mannahatta a-march--and it's O to sing it well! It's O for a manly life in the camp. And the sturdy artillery The guns bright as gold, the work for giants, to serve well the guns, Unlimber them! (No more as the past forty years for salutes for courtesies merely, Put in something now besides powder and wadding.) And you lady of ships, you Mannahatta, Old matron of this proud, friendly, turbulent city, Often in peace and wealth you were pensive or covertly frown'd amid all your children, But now you smile with joy exulting old Mannahatta. SONG OF THE BANNER AT DAYBREAK _Poet_ O a new song, a free song, Flapping, flapping, flapping, flapping, by sounds, by voices clearer, By the wind's voice and that of the drum, By the banner's voice and the child's voice and sea's voice and father's voice, Low on the ground and high in the air, On the ground where father and child stand, In the upward air where their eyes turn, Where the banner at daybreak is flapping. Words! book-words! what are you? Words no more, for hearken and see, My song is there in the open air, and I must sing, With the banner and pennant a-flapping. I'll weave the chord and twine in, Man's desire and babe's desire, I'll twine them in, I'll put in life, I'll put the bayonet's flashing point, I'll let bullets and slugs whizz (As one carrying a symbol and menace far into the future, Crying with trumpet voice, _Arouse and beware! Beware and arouse!_) I'll pour the verse with streams of blood, full of volition, full of joy, Then loosen, launch forth, to go and compete, With the banner and pennant a-flapping. _Pennant_ Come up here, bard, bard, Come up here, soul, soul, Come up here, dear little child, To fly in the clouds and winds with me, and play with the measureless light. _Child_ Father what is that in the sky beckoning to me with long finger? And what does it say to me all the while? _Father_