This is a very great poem about democracy. It may make you weep.
A note, because I know people will read fast, and it's truly worth penetrating. The first two stanzas are Democracy 'herself' speaking; the final stanza is the poet speaking, addressing Democracy. The repeated phrase, "the love of comrades" is simply a metaphor for democracy. I apologize for this note.
Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass. 1900.
39. A Song
1.
COME, I will make the continent indissoluble;
I will make the most splendid race the sun ever yet shone upon;
I will make divine magnetic lands,
With the love of comrades,
With the life-long love of comrades.
2.
I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies;
I will make inseparable cities, with their arms about each other’s necks;
By the love of comrades,
By the manly love of comrades.
3.
For you these, from me, O Democracy, to serve you, ma femme!
For you! for you, I am trilling these songs,
In the love of comrades,
In the high-towering love of comrades.
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