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I am he who tauntingly compels men, women,
nations, to leap from their seats and contend
for their lives.

9. I am he who goes through the streets with a barbed
tongue, questioning every one I meet—questioning
you up there now:
Who are you, that wanted only to be told what you
knew before?
Who are you, that wanted only a book to join you in
your nonsense?

10. Are you, or would you be, better than all that has
ever been before?
If you would be better than all that has ever been
before, come listen to me, and not otherwise.

11. Fear grace—Fear delicatesse,
Fear the mellow sweet, the sucking of honey-juice,
Beware the advancing mortal ripening of nature,
Beware what precedes the decay of the ruggedness of
states and men.

12. Ages, precedents, poems, have long been accumulating
undirected materials,
America brings builders, and brings its own styles.

13. Mighty bards have done their work, and passed to
other spheres,
One work forever remains, the work of surpassing all
they have done.

14. America, curious toward foreign characters, stands by
its own at all hazards,