Analysis of Apostroph

O MATER! O fils!
   O brood continental!
   O flowers of the prairies!
   O space boundless! O hum of mighty products!
   O you teeming cities! O so invincible, turbulent, proud!
   O race of the future! O women!
   O fathers! O you men of passion and the storm!
   O native power only! O beauty!
   O yourself! O God! O divine average!
   O you bearded roughs! O bards! O all those slumberers!             10
   O arouse! the dawn bird's throat sounds shrill! Do you not hear the
         cock crowing?
   O, as I walk'd the beach, I heard the mournful notes foreboding a
         tempest--the low, oft-repeated shriek of the diver, the long-
         lived loon;
   O I heard, and yet hear, angry thunder;--O you sailors! O ships! make
         quick preparation!
   O from his masterful sweep, the warning cry of the eagle!
   (Give way there, all! It is useless! Give up your spoils;)
   O sarcasms! Propositions! (O if the whole world should prove indeed a
         sham, a sell!)
   O I believe there is nothing real but America and freedom!
   O to sternly reject all except Democracy!
   O imperator! O who dare confront you and me?
   O to promulgate our own! O to build for that which builds for
         mankind!                                                     20
   O feuillage! O North! O the slope drained by the Mexican sea!
   O all, all inseparable--ages, ages, ages!
   O a curse on him that would dissever this Union for any reason
         whatever!
   O climates, labors! O good and evil! O death!
   O you strong with iron and wood! O Personality!
   O the village or place which has the greatest man or woman! even if
         it be only a few ragged huts;
   O the city where women walk in public processions in the streets, the
         same as the men;
   O a wan and terrible emblem, by me adopted!
   O shapes arising! shapes of the future centuries!
   O muscle and pluck forever for me!                                 30
   O workmen and workwomen forever for me!
   O farmers and sailors! O drivers of horses forever for me!
   O I will make the new bardic list of trades and tools!
   O you coarse and wilful! I love you!
   O South! O longings for my dear home! O soft and sunny airs!
   O pensive! O I must return where the palm grows and the mocking-bird
         sings, or else I die!
   O equality! O organic compacts! I am come to be your born poet!
   O whirl, contest, sounding and resounding! I am your poet, because I
         am part of you;
   O days by-gone! Enthusiasts! Antecedents!
   O vast preparations for These States! O years!                     40
   O what is now being sent forward thousands of years to come!
   O mediums! O to teach! to convey the invisible faith!
   To promulge real things! to journey through all The States!
   O creation! O to-day! O laws! O unmitigated adoration!
   O for mightier broods of orators, artists, and singers!
   O for native songs! carpenter's, boatman's, ploughman's songs!
         shoemaker's songs!
   O haughtiest growth of time! O free and extatic!
   O what I, here, preparing, warble for!
   O you hastening light! O the sun of the world will ascend, dazzling,
         and take his height--and you too will ascend;
   O so amazing and so broad! up there resplendent, darting and
         burning;                                                     50
   O prophetic! O vision staggered with weight of light! with pouring
         glories!
   O copious! O hitherto unequalled!
   O Libertad! O compact! O union impossible to dissever!
   O my Soul! O lips becoming tremulous, powerless!
   O centuries, centuries yet ahead!
   O voices of greater orators! I pause--I listen for you
   O you States! Cities! defiant of all outside authority! I spring at
         once into your arms! you I most love!
   O you grand Presidentiads! I wait for you!
   New history! New heroes! I project you!
   Visions of poets! only you really last! O sweep on! sweep on!      60
   O Death! O you striding there! O I cannot yet!
   O heights! O infinitely too swift and dizzy yet!
   O purged lumine! you threaten me more than I can stand!
   O present! I return while yet I may to you!
   O poets to come, I depend upon you!