O you youths, Western youths, So impatient, dull of action, full of manly pride and friendship, Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost, Pioneers! O pioneers! Have the elder races halted? Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the seas? We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the 10 lesson, Pioneers! O pioneers! All the past we leave behind, We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world, Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, Pioneers! O pioneers! We detachments steady throwing, 15 Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountain 20 steep, Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the unknown ways, Pioneers! O pioneers! We primeval forests felling, We the rivers stemming, vexing we and piercing deep the mines within, 25 We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil un heaving, Pioneers! O pioneers! Colorado men are we, 5 From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus, 10 15 20 From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come, Pioneers! O pioneers! From Nebraska, from Arkansas, Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood intervein'd, All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern, Pioneers! O pioneers! Not for delectations sweet, Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious, Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment, Pioneers! O pioneers! Do the feasters gluttonous feast? Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they locked and bolted doors? 25 Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Pioneers! O pioneers! Has the night descended? Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged nodding on our way? Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivious, Pioneers! O pioneers! Till with sound of trumpet, Far, far off the daybreak call-hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind, Swift! to the head of the army!-swift! spring to your 10 places, Pioneers! O pioneers! I HEAR AMERICA SINGING I hear America singing, the various carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each singing his as it should be, 15 blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, 20 The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in 25 the morning, or at noon intermission, or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, The day what belongs to the day at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, 5 Singing with open mouths their strong, melodious songs. CAVALRY CROSSING A FORD A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands, They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the 10 sun hark to the musical clank, Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses loitering stop to drink, Behold the brown-faced men, each group, each person a picture, the negligent rest on the saddles, 15 Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are just entering the ford - while, Scarlet and blue and snowy white, O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! 20 O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; |