Why are you come?”

.... The questions beat like tapping of a drum;

And how could I be dumb,

I who have bugles in me? Fast

The answer blew to her,

For all my breath was worth....

“As a bird comes by grace of spring,

You are my journey and my wing—

And into your heart, O Celia,

My heart has flown, to sing

Solemn and long

A most undaunted song.”

This was the song that she herself had taught me how to sing:

.... As immigrants come toward America

On their continual ships out of the past,

So on my ship America have I, by birth,

Come forth at last

From all the bitter corners of the earth.

And I have ears to hear the westward wind blowing

And I have eyes to look beyond the scope Of sea

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