Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.

167. Thoughts

OF Public Opinion;

Of a calm and cool fiat, sooner or later, (How impassive! How certain and final!)

Of the President with pale face, asking secretly to himself, What will the people say at last?

Of the frivolous Judge—Of the corrupt Congressman, Governor, Mayor—Of such as these, standing helpless and exposed;

Of the mumbling and screaming priest—(soon, soon deserted;)

Of the lessening, year by year, of venerableness, and of the dicta of officers, statutes, pulpits, schools;

Of the rising forever taller and stronger and broader, of the intuitions of men and women, and of self-esteem, and of personality;

—Of the New World—Of the Democracies, resplendent, en-masse;

Of the conformity of politics, armies, navies, to them and to me,

Of the shining sun by them—Of the inherent light, greater than the rest,

Of the envelopment of all by them, and of the effusion of all from them.