Starting from Paumanok（二）

    2

    Victory， union， faith， identity， time，

    The indissoluble compacts， riches， mystery，

    Eternal progress， the kosmos， and the modern reports.

    This then is life，

    Here is what has come to the surface after so many throes

    and convulsions.

    How curious！ how real！

    Underfoot the divine soil， overhead the sun.

    See revolving¹ the globe，

    The ancestor-continents away group'd together，

    The present and future continents north and south， with the

    isthmus² between.

    See， vast trackless spaces，

    As in a dream they change， they swiftly fill，

    Countless³ masses debouch⁴ upon them，

    They are now cover'd with the foremost people， arts，

    institutions， known.

    See， projected through time，

    For me an audience interminable.

    With firm and regular step they wend， they never stop，

    Successions of men， Americanos， a hundred millions，

    One generation playing its part and passing on，

    Another generation playing its part and passing on in its turn，

    With faces turn'd sideways or backward towards me to listen，

    With eyes retrospective towards me.