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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Born on May 31, 1819, Walt Whitman is the author of Leaves of Grass...
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FURTHER READING
Poems about Heroes and Bravery
Alexander's Feast; or, the Power of Music
by John Dryden
Dead Brother Super Hero
by Michael Dickman
Heroisms, 4, 5
by Dan Beachy-Quick
My hero bares his nerves
by Dylan Thomas
On Seeing Larry Rivers' Washington Crossing the Delaware at the Museum of Modern Art
by Frank O'Hara
Survivors--Found
by Joan Murray
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Washington's Monument, February, 1885

 
by Walt Whitman

Ah, not this marble, dead and cold:  
Far from its base and shaft expanding—the round zones circling, 
         comprehending, 
 
Thou, Washington, art all the world's, the continents' entire— 
         not yours alone, America, 
 
Europe's as well, in every part, castle of lord or laborer's cot,  
Or frozen North, or sultry South—the African's—the Arab's in 
         his tent, 
 
Old Asia's there with venerable smile, seated amid her ruins;  
(Greets the antique the hero new? 'tis but the same—the heir 
         legitimate, continued ever, 
 
The indomitable heart and arm—proofs of the never-broken 
         line, 
 
Courage, alertness, patience, faith, the same—e'en in defeat  
         defeated not, the same:) 
 
Wherever sails a ship, or house is built on land, or day or night,  
Through teeming cities' streets, indoors or out, factories or farms,  
Now, or to come, or past—where patriot wills existed or exist,  
Wherever Freedom, pois'd by Toleration, sway'd by Law,  
Stands or is rising thy true monument.






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