flag of stars, of man!
sure and steady step, passing
highest flags of kings
FLAG of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting!
Long yet your road, fateful flag!—long yet your road,
and lined with bloody death!
For the prize I see at issue, at last is the world!
All its ships and shores I see, interwoven with your
threads, greedy banner!
—Dream’d again the flags of kings, highest borne, to
flaunt unrivall’d?
O hasten, flag of man! O with sure and steady step,
passing highest flags of kings,
Walk supreme to the heavens, mighty symbol—run up
above them all,
Flag of stars! thick sprinkled bunting!
Flag of Stars By Walt Whitman as printed in Walt Whitman: The Complete poetry and selected prose and letters, London, The Nonesuch Press, 1964
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