![]() Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged nodding on our way? Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment,ĭo the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and bolted doors? Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious, Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us, ![]() ![]() (Shrouded bards of other lands, you may rest, you have done your work,) Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united, O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives! We to-day's procession heading, we the route for travel clearing, Lo, the brother orbs around, all the clustering suns and planets,Īll the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams,Īll for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait behind, Through these shores amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing, We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way, Holding single or together, steady moving to the front, all for us,Īll the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work,Īll the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves,Īll the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked,Īll the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the dying, Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill'd.įalling in they beat for us, with the Western movement beat, Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping,Īre there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come? With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill'd, Raise the fang'd and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon'd mistress,īy those swarms upon our rear we must never yield or falter,Īges back in ghostly millions frowning there behind us urging, Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress, (bend your heads all,) O I mourn and yet exult, I am rapt with love for all, O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all! ![]() We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving,įrom the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus,įrom the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come,Ĭentral inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood intervein'd,Īll the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern, We the rivers stemming, vexing we and piercing deep the mines within, We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world,įresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march,ĭown the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,Ĭonquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the unknown ways, We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson, Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,ĭo they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the seas? So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes? The Poem Come my tan-faced children,įollow well in order, get your weapons ready, The poem was written as a tribute to Whitman's fervor for the great Westward expansion in the United States that led to things like the California Gold Rush and exploration of the far west. It was first published in Leaves of Grass in 1865. " Pioneers! O Pioneers!" is a poem by the American poet Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman, aged 37, steel engraving by Samuel Hollyer
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