All 21 Uses of
democracy
in
Leaves of Grass
- To Foreign Lands I heard that you ask'd for something to prove this puzzle the New World, And to define America, her athletic Democracy, Therefore I send you my poems that you behold in them what you wanted.†
Chpt 1
- The prophet and the bard, Shall yet maintain themselves, in higher stages yet, Shall mediate to the Modern, to Democracy, interpret yet to them, God and eidolons.†
Chpt 1 *
- For you to share with me two greatnesses, and a third one rising inclusive and more resplendent, The greatness of Love and Democracy, and the greatness of Religion.†
Chpt 2
- 12 Democracy! near at hand to you a throat is now inflating itself and joyfully singing.†
Chpt 2
- Toward the male of the States, and toward the female of the States, Exulting words, words to Democracy's lands.†
Chpt 2
- I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of democracy, By God!†
Chpt 3
- For You, O Democracy Come, I will make the continent indissoluble, I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon, I will make divine magnetic lands, With the love of comrades, With the life-long love of comrades.†
Chpt 5
- For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you ma femme!†
Chpt 5
- …thirty thousand miles of river navigation, The seven millions of distinct families and the same number of dwellings— always these, and more, branching forth into numberless branches, Always the free range and diversity—always the continent of Democracy; Always the prairies, pastures, forests, vast cities, travelers, Kanada, the snows; Always these compact lands tied at the hips with the belt stringing the huge oval lakes; Always the West with strong native persons, the increasing…†
Chpt 10
- Shapes of Democracy total, result of centuries, Shapes ever projecting other shapes, Shapes of turbulent manly cities, Shapes of the friends and home-givers of the whole earth, Shapes bracing the earth and braced with the whole earth.†
Chpt 12
- How Democracy with desperate vengeful port strides on, shown through the dark by those flashes of lightning!†
Chpt 21
- 3 Thunder on! stride on, Democracy! strike with vengeful stroke!†
Chpt 21
- BOOK XXIII By Blue Ontario's Shore By blue Ontario's shore, As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd, and the dead that return no more, A Phantom gigantic superb, with stern visage accosted me, Chant me the poem, it said, that comes from the soul of America, chant me the carol of victory, And strike up the marches of Libertad, marches more powerful yet, And sing me before you go the song of the throes of Democracy.†
Chpt 23
- Democracy, the destin'd conqueror, yet treacherous lip-smiles everywhere, And death and infidelity at every step.†
Chpt 23
- Do you see who have left all feudal processes and poems behind them, and assumed the poems and processes of Democracy?†
Chpt 23
- Democracy, while weapons were everywhere aim'd at your breast, I saw you serenely give birth to immortal children, saw in dreams your dilating form, Saw you with spreading mantle covering the world.†
Chpt 23
- …for myself, and for these chants—and now I have found it, It is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them I neither accept nor reject,) It is no more in the legends than in all else, It is in the present—it is this earth to-day, It is in Democracy—(the purport and aim of all the past,) It is the life of one man or one woman to-day—the average man of to-day, It is in languages, social customs, literatures, arts, It is in the broad show of artificial things, ships, machinery,…†
Chpt 24
- 4 Sail, sail thy best, ship of Democracy, Of value is thy freight, 'tis not the Present only, The Past is also stored in thee, Thou holdest not the venture of thyself alone, not of the Western continent alone, Earth's resume entire floats on thy keel O ship, is steadied by thy spars, With thee Time voyages in trust, the antecedent nations sink or swim with thee, With all their ancient struggles, martyrs, heroes, epics, wars, thou bear'st the other continents, Theirs, theirs as much as…†
Chpt 31
- …the lessening year by year of venerableness, and of the dicta of officers, statutes, pulpits, schools, Of the rising forever taller and stronger and broader of the intuitions of men and women, and of Self-esteem and Personality; Of the true New World—of the Democracies resplendent en-masse, Of the conformity of politics, armies, navies, to them, Of the shining sun by them—of the inherent light, greater than the rest, Of the envelopment of all by them, and the effusion of all from them.†
Chpt 32
- Mediums They shall arise in the States, They shall report Nature, laws, physiology, and happiness, They shall illustrate Democracy and the kosmos, They shall be alimentive, amative, perceptive, They shall be complete women and men, their pose brawny and supple, their drink water, their blood clean and clear, They shall fully enjoy materialism and the sight of products, they shall enjoy the sight of the beef, lumber, bread-stuffs, of Chicago the great city.†
Chpt 32
- …the wrestle of evil with good, the sounding and resounding, keep on and on, How society waits unform'd, and is for a while between things ended and things begun, How America is the continent of glories, and of the triumph of freedom and of the Democracies, and of the fruits of society, and of all that is begun, And how the States are complete in themselves—and how all triumphs and glories are complete in themselves, to lead onward, And how these of mine and of the States will in their…†
Chpt 33
Definition:
-
(democracy) a system of government in which citizens have power with equal votes