Thick-Sprinkled Bunting

A poem by Walt Whitman

Thick-sprinkled bunting! Flag of stars!
Long yet your road, fateful flag! long yet your road, and lined with bloody death!
For the prize I see at issue, at last is the world!
All its ships and shores I see, interwoven with your threads, greedy banner!
Dream'd again the flags of kings, highest born, to flaunt unrival'd?
O hasten, flag of man! O with sure and steady step, passing highest flags of kings,
Walk supreme to the heavens, mighty symbol run up above them all,
Flag of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting!