Page:Leaves of Grass (1882).djvu/362

356 Her ample gown is of cream-hued linen,

Her grandsons raised the flax, and her grand-daughters spun it with the distaff and the wheel.

The melodious character of the earth,

The finish beyond which philosophy cannot go and does not wish to go,

The justified mother of men. 



, some wild trumpeter, some strange musician,

Hovering unseen in air, vibrates capricious tunes to-night.

I hear thee trumpeter, listening alert I catch thy notes,

Now pouring, whirling like a tempest round me,

Now low, subdued, now in the distance lost.

Come nearer bodiless one, haply in thee resounds

Some dead composer, haply thy pensive life

Was fill'd with aspirations high, unform'd ideals,

Waves, oceans musical, chaotically surging,

That now ecstatic ghost, close to me bending, thy cornet echoing, pealing,

Gives out to no one's ears but mine, but freely gives to mine,

That I may thee translate.

Blow trumpeter free and clear, I follow thee,

While at thy liquid prelude, glad, serene,

The fretting world, the streets, the noisy hours of day withdraw,

A holy calm descends like dew upon me,

I walk in cool refreshing night the walks of Paradise,

I scent the grass, the moist air and the roses;

Thy song expands my numb'd imbonded spirit, thou freest, launchest me,

Floating and basking upon heaven's lake.

Blow again trumpeter! and for my sensuous eyes,

Bring the old pageants, show the feudal world.

