[BOOKXXXV.  Good-bye my fancy]

} Sail out for Good, Eidolon Yacht!

Heave the anchor short! 
Raise main-sail and jib—­steer forth,
O little white-hull’d sloop, now speed on really deep waters,
(I will not call it our concluding voyage,
But outset and sure entrance to the truest, best, maturest;)
Depart, depart from solid earth—­no more returning to these shores,
Now on for aye our infinite free venture wending,
Spurning all yet tried ports, seas, hawsers, densities, gravitation,
Sail out for good, eidolon yacht of me!

} Lingering Last Drops

And whence and why come you?

We know not whence, (was the answer,)
We only know that we drift here with the rest,
That we linger’d and lagg’d—­but were wafted at last, and are now here,
To make the passing shower’s concluding drops.

} Good-Bye My Fancy

Good-bye my fancy—­(I had a word to say,
But ’tis not quite the time—­The best of any man’s word or say,
Is when its proper place arrives—­and for its meaning,
I keep mine till the last.)

} On, on the Same, Ye Jocund Twain!

On, on the same, ye jocund twain! 
My life and recitative, containing birth, youth, mid-age years,
Fitful as motley-tongues of flame, inseparably twined and merged in
    one—­combining all,
My single soul—­aims, confirmations, failures, joys—­Nor single soul alone,
I chant my nation’s crucial stage, (America’s, haply humanity’s)—­
    the trial great, the victory great,
A strange eclaircissement of all the masses past, the eastern world,
    the ancient, medieval,
Here, here from wanderings, strayings, lessons, wars, defeats—­here
    at the west a voice triumphant—­justifying all,
A gladsome pealing cry—­a song for once of utmost pride and satisfaction;
I chant from it the common bulk, the general average horde, (the
    best sooner than the worst)—­And now I chant old age,
(My verses, written first for forenoon life, and for the summer’s,
    autumn’s spread,
I pass to snow-white hairs the same, and give to pulses
    winter-cool’d the same;)
As here in careless trill, I and my recitatives, with faith and love,
wafting to other work, to unknown songs, conditions,
On, on ye jocund twain! continue on the same!

} My 71st Year

After surmounting three-score and ten,
With all their chances, changes, losses, sorrows,
My parents’ deaths, the vagaries of my life, the many tearing
    passions of me, the war of ’63 and ’4,
As some old broken soldier, after a long, hot, wearying march, or
    haply after battle,
To-day at twilight, hobbling, answering company roll-call, Here,
    with vital voice,
Reporting yet, saluting yet the Officer over all.

} Apparitions

A vague mist hanging ’round half the pages: 
(Sometimes how strange and clear to the soul,
That all these solid things are indeed but apparitions, concepts,
    non-realities.)