I hear and see not strips of cloth alone, + 

I hear the tramp of armies, I hear the challenging sentry, + 

I hear the jubilant shouts of millions of men, I hear Liberty! + 

I hear the drums beat and the trumpets blowing, + 

I myself move abroad swift-rising flying then, + 

I use the wings of the land-bird and use the wings of the sea-bird, and look down as from a height, + 

I do not deny the precious results of peace, I see populous cities with wealth incalculable, + 

I see numberless farms, I see the farmers working in their fields or barns, + 

I see mechanics working, I see buildings everywhere founded, going up, or finish’d, + 

I see trains of cars swiftly speeding along railroad tracks drawn by the locomotives, + 

I see the stores, depots, of Boston, Baltimore, Charleston, New Orleans, + 

I see far in the West the immense area of grain, I dwell awhile hovering, + 

I pass to the lumber forests of the North, and again to the Southern plantation, and again to California; + 

Sweeping the whole I see the countless profit, the busy gatherings, earn’d wages, + 

See the Identity formed out of thirty-eight spacious and haughty States, (and many more to come,) + 

See forts on the shores of harbors, see ships sailing in and out; + 

Then over all, (aye! aye!) my little and lengthen’d pennant shaped like a sword, + 

Runs swiftly up indicating war and defiance⁠—and now the halyards have rais’d it, + 

Side of my banner broad and blue, side of my starry banner, + 

Discarding peace over all the sea and land. + 