Walt Whitman(1819–1892) · Leaves of Grass · Sands at Seventy · 1888
As one by one withdraw the lofty actors, From that great play on history’s stage eterne, That lurid, partial act of war and peace—of old and new contending, Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, and many a long suspense; All past—and since, in countless graves receding, mellowing, Victor’s and vanquish’d—Lincoln’s and Lee’s—now thou with them, Man of the mighty days—and equal to the days! Thou from the prairies!—tangled and many-vein’d and hard has been thy part, To admiration has it been enacted!