“the fakes of death” (section 26) and his agonizing identi¤cation with the
legions of the dying (sections 33–37), he once again becomes secure in the
thought that the universal “law” of goodness and amelioration will always
prevail. Identifying with Christ once again, he declares, “our swift ordi-
nances are on their way over the whole earth [emphasis added].” Recall-
ing Christ’s resurrection from “the grave of rock” and experiencing a
vision in which he sees “the corpses rise... the gashes heal... the fas-
tenings roll away,” he regains his equanimity and his perspective. Like a
Christ ¤gure who has momentarily forgotten his bond with humanity, his
divinity, and his place in the cosmic plan, he is astonished that he could
ever have looked “with a separate look on my own cruci¤xion and bloody
crowning [emphasis added]” or that he could have disregarded the divine
“law” that governs the universe. Recovered now, he feels re-empowered
to absorb universal truths and to utter them.
A collage of images describes the persona who now imagines himself
to be a superman at the head of “an average ongoing procession” of the
democratic masses moving forward on the road of evolutionary amelio-
ration and toward an awareness of their own worth and their eligibility
for immortality. (Since he was neither a philosopher nor a divine, Whit-
man felt no need for doctrinal consistency.) Having “resum[ed] the over-
staid fraction” of positive outlook that he had temporarily abandoned
while he was grieving for the suffering and the dead and once again “re-
plenished with supreme power,” the persona boldly resumes his divine
place in the cosmos:
I remember.... I resume the overstaid fraction,
The grave of rock multiplies what has been con¤ded to it.... or
to any graves,
The corpses rise.... the gashes heal.... the fastenings roll away.I troop forth replenished with supreme power, one of the endless
procession [across North American states and cities]....
Inland and by the seacoast and boundary lines.... and we pass
boundary lines.
Our swift ordinances are on the way over the whole earth,
The blossoms we wear in our hats are the growth of two
thousand years.“Triumphal Drums for the Dead” / 61