Walt Whitman's "Election Day, November, 1884"

Image via Wikipedia

 

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest          scene and show,

'Twould not be you, Niagara—nor you, ye limitless prairies—nor          your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,

Nor you, Yosemite—nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyser-          loops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,

Nor Oregon's white cones—nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes—          nor Mississippi's stream:

—This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name— the           still small voice vibrating—America's choosing day,

(The heart of it not in the chosen—the act itself the main, the          quadriennial choosing,)

The stretch of North and South arous'd—sea-board and inland          —Texas to Maine—the Prairie States—Vermont, Virginia,          California,

The final ballot-shower from East to West—the paradox and con-          flict,

The countless snow-flakes falling—(a swordless conflict,

Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's:)          the peaceful choice of all,

Or good or ill humanity—welcoming the darker odds, the dross:

—Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify—while the          heart pants, life glows:

These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,

Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails.

H/T: http://www.whitmanarchive.org