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Not the Pilot

 NOT the pilot has charged himself to bring his ship into port, though beaten back, and
 many
 times
 baffled; 
Not the path-finder, penetrating inland, weary and long, 
By deserts parch’d, snows-chill’d, rivers wet, perseveres till he reaches his
 destination,

More than I have charged myself, heeded or unheeded, to compose a free march for These
 States, 
To be exhilarating music to them—a battle-call, rousing to arms, if need
 be—years,
 centuries hence. 5

Poem by Walt Whitman
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