1
\nCOME, my tan-faced children,
\nFollow well in order, get your weapons ready;
\nHave you your pistols? have you your sharp edged axes? Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
2
\nFor we cannot tarry here,
\nWe must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,
\nWe, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
3
\nO you youths, western youths,
\nSo impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,
\nPlain I see you, western youths, see you tramping with the foremost, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
4
\nHave the elder races halted?
\nDo they droop and end their lesson, wearied, over there beyond the seas?
\nWe take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the lesson, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
5
\nAll the past we leave behind;
\nWe debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world,
\nFresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
6
\nWe detachments steady throwing,
\nDown the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,
\nConquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go, the unknown ways, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
7
\nWe primeval forests felling,
\nWe the rivers stemming, vexing we, and piercing deep the mines within;
\nWe the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
8
\nColorado men are we,
\nFrom the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus,
\nFrom the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
9
\nFrom Nebraska, from Arkansas,
\nCentral inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood intervein’d;
\nAll the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
10
\nO resistless, restless race!
\nO beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all!
\nO I mourn and yet exult\u2014I am rapt with love for all, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
11
\nRaise the mighty mother mistress,
\nWaving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress, (bend your heads all,)
\nRaise the fang’d and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon’d mistress, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
12
\nSee, my children, resolute children,
\nBy those swarms upon our rear, we must never yield or falter,
\nAges back in ghostly millions, frowning there behind us urging, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
13
\nOn and on, the compact ranks,
\nWith accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill’d,
\nThrough the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
14
\nO to die advancing on!
\nAre there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come?
\nThen upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill’d, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
15
\nAll the pulses of the world,
\nFalling in, they beat for us, with the western movement beat;
\nHolding single or together, steady moving, to the front, all for us, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
16
\nLife’s involv’d and varied pageants,
\nAll the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work,
\nAll the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
17
\nAll the hapless silent lovers,
\nAll the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked,
\nAll the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the dying, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
18
\nI too with my soul and body,
\nWe, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way,
\nThrough these shores, amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
19
\nLo! the darting bowling orb!
\nLo! the brother orbs around! all the clustering suns and planets,
\nAll the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
20
\nThese are of us, they are with us,
\nAll for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait behind,
\nWe to-day’s procession heading, we the route for travel clearing, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
21
\nO you daughters of the west!
\nO you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives!
\nNever must you be divided, in our ranks you move united, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
22
\nMinstrels latent on the prairies!
\n(Shrouded bards of other lands! you may sleep\u2014you have done your work;)
\nSoon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
23
\nNot for delectations sweet;
\nNot the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious;
\nNot the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
24
\nDo the feasters gluttonous feast?
\nDo the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock’d and bolted doors?
\nStill be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
25
\nHas the night descended?
\nWas the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged, nodding on our way?
\nYet a passing hour I yield you, in your tracks to pause oblivious, Pioneers! O pioneers!<\/p>\n
26
\nTill with sound of trumpet,
\nFar, far off the day-break call\u2014hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind;
\nSwift! to the head of the army!\u2014swift! spring to your places, Pioneers! O pioneers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1 COME, my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready; Have you your pistols? have you your sharp edged axes? Pioneers! O pioneers! 2 For we cannot tarry here, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-63187","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"featured_image_urls":{},"yoast_head":"\n