145. Lo! Victress on the Peaks. Whitman, Walt. 1900. Leaves of Grass

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

145. Lo! Victress on the Peaks

LO! Victress on the peaks!
Where thou, with mighty brow, regarding the world,
(The world, O Libertad, that vainly conspired against thee;)
Out of its countless beleaguering toils, after thwarting them all;
Dominant, with the dazzling sun around thee,	5
Flauntest now unharm’d, in immortal soundness and bloom—lo! in these hours supreme,
No poem proud, I, chanting, bring to thee—nor mastery’s rapturous verse;
But a book, containing night’s darkness, and blood-dripping wounds,
And psalms of the dead.