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Leaves of Grass (1867)
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CITY OF SHIPS.
| (O the black ships! O the fierce ships! |
| O the beautiful, sharp bow'd steam-ships and sail-ships!) |
| City of the world! (for all races are here; |
| All the lands of the earth make contributions here;) |
| City of the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides! |
City whose gleeful tides continually rush or recede,
whirling in and out, with eddies and foam!
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City of wharves and stores! city of tall façades of mar-
ble and iron!
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Proud and passionate city! mettlesome, mad, extrava-
gant city!
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Spring up, O city! not for peace alone, but be indeed
yourself, warlike!
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| Fear not! submit to no models but your own, O city! |
| Behold me! incarnate me, as I have incarnated you! |
I have rejected nothing you offer'd me—whom you
adopted, I have adopted;
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Good or bad, I never question you—I love all—I do
not condemn anything;
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I chant and celebrate all that is yours—yet peace no
more;
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In peace I chanted peace, but now the drum of war is
mine;
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| War, red war, is my song through your streets, O city! |
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