To The States [To Identify the 16th, 17th, or 18th Presidentiad] lyrics
by Walt Whitman
Why reclining, interrogating? why myself and all drowsing?
What deepening twilight-sc*m floating atop of the waters,
Who are they as bats and night-dogs askant in the capitol?
What a filthy Presidentiad! (O South, your torrid suns! O North,
your arctic freezings!)
Are those really Congressmen? are those the great Judges? is that
the President?
Then I will sleep awhile yet, for I see that these States sleep, for
reasons;
(With gathering murk, with muttering thunder and lambent shoots we
all duly awake,
South, North, East, West, inland and seaboard, we will surely awake.)