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374 you of New England, To the man of the Seaside State, and of Pennsylvania, To the Kanadian of the north—to the Southerner I
 * love,

These, with perfect trust, to depict you as myself—
 * the germs are in all men;

I believe the main purport of These States is to found
 * a superb friendship, exalté, previously unknown,

Because I perceive it waits, and has been always waiting,
 * latent in all men.



! my likeness! Though you look so impassive, ample and spheric
 * there,

I now suspect that is not all; I now suspect there is something fierce in you, eligible
 * to burst forth;

For an athlete is enamoured of me—and I of him. But toward him there is something fierce and terrible
 * in me, eligible to burst forth,

I dare not tell it in words—not even in these songs.