Then, for enclosing clue of all, it is imperatively and ever to be
borne in mind that "Leaves of Grass" entire is not to be construed as
an intellectual or scholastic effort or poem mainly, but more as a
radical utterance out of the Emotions and the Physique--an utterance
adjusted to, perhaps born of, Democracy and the Modern--in its very
nature regardless of the old conventions, and, under the great laws,
following only its own impulses.
POETRY TO-DAY IN AMERICA
SHAKSPERE--THE FUTURE
Strange as it may seem, the topmost proof of a race is its own born
poetry. The presence of that, or the absence, each tells its story. As
the flowering rose or lily, as the ripened fruit to a tree, the apple
or the peach, no matter how fine the trunk, or copious or rich the
branches and foliage, here waits _sine qua non_ at last. The stamp of
entire and finished greatness to any nation, to the American Republic
among the rest, must be sternly withheld till it has put what
it stands for in the blossom of original, first-class poems. No
imitations will do.
And though no _esthetik_ worthy the present condition or future
certainties of the New World seems to have been outlined in men's
minds, or has been generally called for, or thought needed, I am
clear that until the United States have just such definite and native
expressers in the highest artistic fields, their mere political,
geographical, wealth-forming, and even intellectual eminence, however
astonishing and predominant, will constitute but a more and more
expanded and well-appointed body, and perhaps brain, with little or no
soul.
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