Happy Fourth!

As we celebrate the Fourth of July today in a whirl of fireworks, hot dogs and beer, consider also these lines from Walt Whitman, glorying in our nation, quirks and all:

AMERICA always!
Always our own feuillage!
Always Florida’s green peninsula! Always the priceless delta of Louisiana! Always the cotton-fields of Alabama and Texas!
Always California’s golden hills and hollows—and the silver mountains of New Mexico! . . .
Always the vast slope drain’d by the Southern Sea—inseparable with the slopes drain’d by the Eastern and Western Seas;	5
The area . . . of These States—the three and a half millions of square miles;
The eighteen thousand miles of sea-coast and bay-coast on the main—the thirty thousand miles of river navigation,
The seven millions of distinct families, and the same number of dwellings—Always these, and more, branching forth into numberless branches;
Always the free range and diversity! always the continent of Democracy! ... Whoever you are! how can I but offer you divine leaves, that you also be eligible as I am?   How can I but, as here, chanting, invite you for yourself to collect bouquets of the incomparable feuillage of These States? American Feuillage, Leaves of Grass

Comments

[Patrick S. O'Donnell]

That was nice, thanks! I like it much better than this post over at Opinio Juris: http://www.opiniojuris.org/posts/1215198371.shtml