(Carried in the New York Times June 27,1860)
later revised as "A Broadway Pageant" in Leaves Of Grass 1871 ed.)

THE ERRAND-BEARERS
-----
16th 6th Month, Year 84 of the States.
-----
1
Over sea, hither from Niphon,
Courteous, the Princes of Asia, swart-cheek'd princes,
First-comers, guests, two sworded princes,
Lesson giving princes, leaning back in theri open
      barouches, bare-headed, impassive,
This day they rid through Manhattan.
2
Libertad! 
I do not know whether others behold what I be-
     hold pass, in the procession, along with the
     Princes of Asia, the errand-bearers,
Bringing up the rear, hovering above, around, or 
     in the ranks marching,
But I will sing you a song of what I behold,
     Libertad.
3
When million-footed Manhattan, unpent, de-
     scends to her pavements,
When the thunder cracking guns arouse me with 
     the proud roar I love,
When the round-mouth'd guns, out of the smoke 
     and smell I love, spit their salutes,
When the fire-flashing guns have fully alerted me
     -- When heaven-clouds canopy my city with a 
     delicate thin haze,
When, gorgeous, the countless straight stems, the 
     forests at the wharves, thicken with colors,
When every ship is richly drest, and carrying her 
     flag at the peak,
When pennants trail, and festoons hang from the
     windows,
When Broadway is entirely given up to foot-
     passers and foot-standers--When the mass is 
     densest,
When the facades of the houses are alive with 
     people, when eyes gaze, riveted, tens of 
     thousands at a time,
When the guests, Asiatic, from the islands, ad-
     vance--When the pageant moves forward 
     visible,
When the summons is made--When the answer 
     that waited thousands of years, answers,
I _too_, arising, answering, descend to the pave-
     ments, merge with the crowd, and gaze with 
     them.
4
Superb-faced Manhattan!
Comrade Americanos--to us, then, at last, the 
     orient comes.
5
To us, my city,
Where our tall topt marble and iron beauties 
     range on opposite sides--to walk in the space 
     between,
To-day our antipodes comes.
6
The Originatress comes.
The land of Paradise--land of the Caucasusu--
    the nest of birth,
The nest of languages, the bequeather of poems--
    The race of eld,
Florid with blood, pensive, rapt with musings, 
    hot with passion,
Sultry with perfume, with ample and flowing 
    garments,
With sunburnt visage, with intense soul and 
    glittering eyes,
The race of Brahma comes.
7
See my cantabile! these and more, are flashing 
    to us from the procession;
As it moves changing, a kaleidoscope divine 
    it moves, changing, before us.
8
Not the errand-bearing princes,
Not the tann'd Japanese only--not China only,
     nor the Mongol only.
Lithe and silent, the Hindoo appears--the whole
     continentitself appears, the past, the dead,
The murky night-morning of wonder and fable inscrutable,
The enveloped mysteries, the old and unknown hive-bees,
The North--the sweltering south--Assyria--the 
    Hebrews--the ancient of ancients,
Vast desolated cities--the gliding Present--All of 
    these, and more, are in the pageant-procession.
9
Geography, the world, is in it,
The Great Sea, the brood of islands, Polynesia, 
The coast beyond--the coast you, henceforth, are 
    facing--you, Libertad! from your western 
    golden shores,
The countries there, with their populations--the 
    millions enmasse are curiously here,
The multitudes are all here--they show visibly 
    enough to my eyes,
The swarming market-places, the temples with 
    idols ranged along the sides, or at the end--
    bonze, brahmin, and llama,
The mandarin, farmer, merchant, mechanic, and 
    fisherman, also,
The singing-girl and the dancing-girl--the ecsta-
    tic persons, absorbed,
The secluded Emperors--Confucius himself--the 
    great poets and heroes--the warriors, the
    castes, all,
Trooping up, crowding from all directions--from 
    the Altay mountains,
From Thibet--from the four winding and far-flow-
    ing rivers of China,
From the southern peninsulas and the demi-con-
    tinental islands, from Malaysia,
These and whatever belongs to them, palpable, 
    show forth to me, and are seiz'd by me,
And I am seiz'd by them, and friendlily held by 
    them,
Till, as here, them all I chant, Libertad! for 
    themselves and for you.
10
I too, raising my voice, bear an errand,
I chant the world on my Western sea,
I chant, copious, the islands beyond, thick as 
    stars in the sky,
I chant the new empire, grander than any be-
    fore--As in a vision it comes to me,
I chant America, the Mistress--I chant a greater 
    supremacy,
I chant, projected, a thousand blooming cities 
    yet, in time, on those groups of sea-islands,
I chant my sailships and steamships threading 
   the archipelagoes,
I chant my stars and stripes fluttering in the wind,
I chant commerce opening, the sleep of ages 
   having done its work--races, re-born, re-
   freshed,
Lives, works resumed--The object I know not--
   but the old, the Asiatic, resume, as it 
   must be,
Commencing from this day surrounded by the 
   world.
11
And you Libertad of the world!
You shall sit in the middle, thousands and of years,
As to-day from one side the nobles of Asia 
   come to you,
As to-morrow from the other side the Queen of 
   England sends her eldest son to you.
12
The sign is reversing, the orb is enclosed,
The ring is circled, the journey is done,
The box-lid is but perceptibly opened--neverthe-
   less the perfume pours copiously out of the 
   whole box.
13
Young Libertad! 
With the venerable Asia, the all-mother,
Be considerate with her, now and ever, hot Lib-
    ertad, for you are all,
Bend your proud neck to the long-off mother now 
    sending messages over the archipelagoes to 
    you, young Libertad;
--Were the children straying westward so long? 
    So wide the tramping?
Were the precedent dim ages debouching west-
    ward from Paradise so long?
Were the centuries steadily footing it that way, 
    all the while unknown, for you, for reasons?
--They are justified--they are accomplish'd--
    They shall now be turn'd the other way also, 
    to travel toward you thence,
They shall now also march obediently eastward,
    for your sake Libertad.

Walt Whitman