oriole and coot and surf-duck and red-shouldered-bawk and fish-hawk and
white-ibis and Indian-hen and cat-owl and water-pheasant and qua-bird and
pied-sheldrake and blackbird and mocking-bird and buzzard and condor and
night-heron and eagle. To him the hereditary countenance descends, both
mother's and father's. To him enter the essences of the real things and
past and present events--of the enormous diversity of temperature and
agriculture and mines--the tribes of red aborigines--the weather-beaten
vessels entering new ports, or making landings on rocky coasts--the first
settlements north or south--the rapid stature and muscle--the haughty
defiance of '76, and the war and peace and formation of the constitution--
the union always surrounded by blatherers, and always calm and
impregnable--the perpetual coming of immigrants--the wharf-hemmed cities
and superior marine--the unsurveyed interior--the loghouses and clearings
and wild animals and hunters and trappers--the free commerce--the fisheries
and whaling and gold-digging--the endless gestations of new states--the
convening of Congress every December, the members duly coming up from all
climates and the uttermost parts--the noble character of the young
mechanics and of all free American workmen and workwomen--the general
ardour and friendliness and enterprise--the perfect equality of the female
with the male--the large amativeness--the fluid movement of the
population--the factories and mercantile life and labour-saving machinery--
the Yankee swap--the New York firemen and the target excursion--the
Southern plantation life--the character of the north-east and of the north-
west and south-west-slavery, and the tremulous spreading of hands to
protect it, and the stern opposition to it which shall never cease till it
ceases, or the speaking of tongues and the moving of lips cease. For such
the expression of the American poet is to be transcendent and new. It is to
be indirect, and not direct or descriptive or epic. Its quality goes
through these to much more. Let the age and wars of other nations be
chanted, and their eras and characters be illustrated, and that finish the