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North American Review.

I think (though I am not sure) that an article on it will appear in The American soon, by a couple of

But I have never wondered that you were caviare to the general; because, although I see clearly that

of the leading publishers of the United States is a literary event, for through it the greatest American

I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion, but the solid sense of the book is

Though these words were afterward somewhat taken back—a little Galileo-like, through fear of the New

He looks exceeding well in his broad hat, wide collar and suit of modest gray.

is already established as a popular American classic.

Reprinted in the American (May 1881) and Leaves of Grass (1881–82).; Our transcription is based on a

respond within their breasts, their brains, the sad reverberations,) The passionate toll and clang, City

to city joining, sounding passing, Those heart‑beats of a Nation in the Night.

Joel Myerson (New York: Garland, 1993), 2:520; Major American Authors on Cd-Rom: Walt Whitman (Westport

Joel Myerson (New York: Garland, 1993), 2:520; Major American Authors on Cd-Rom: Walt Whitman (Westport

lines unpublished in Whitman's life, but which appeared in other manuscript drafts with lines that were

The lines that appear in this manuscript were published posthumously as part of a poem titled "Supplement

Joel Myerson (New York: Garland, 1993), 2:624; and Major American Authors on CD-Rom: Walt Whitman (Westport

lines unpublished in Whitman's life, but which appeared in other manuscript drafts with lines that were

The lines that appear in this manuscript were published posthumously as part of a poem titled "Supplement

Joel Myerson (New York: Garland, 1993), 2:624; and Major American Authors on CD-Rom: Walt Whitman (Westport

ings meanings unknown before, Subtler than ever—more harmony—as if born here—related here, Not to the citys

city's frescoed rooms—not to the audience of the opera house, Sounds, songs, trills, wandering strains

The name and address written in pencil were added later, likely in 1881, when Whitman visited Boston

Although Whitman also visited Boston in 1860, John Soule's photography studio did not move to 338 Washington

The name and address written in pencil were added later, likely in 1881, when Whitman visited Boston

Although Whitman also visited Boston in 1860, John Soule's photography studio did not move to 338 Washington

TO the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little, Once unquestioning

obedience, once fully enslaved, Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever after

We dwell a while in every city and town, We pass through Kanada Canada , the North-east, the vast valley

And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?

A WOMAN waits for me, she contains all, nothing is lacking, Yet all were lacking if sex were lacking,

WE TWO, HOW LONG WE WERE FOOL'D.

ONCE I PASS'D THROUGH A POPULOUS CITY.

ONCE I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use with its shows, architecture

for city and land for land.

CITY OF ORGIES.

CITY of orgies, walks and joys, City whom that I have lived and sung in your midst will one day make

Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city spread around me?

if I could be with you and become your comrade; Be it as if I were with you.

the scaffold;) I would sing in my copious song your census returns of the States, The tables of population

that the old accounts, bibles, genealogies, are true, without exception, I assert that all past days were

what they must have been, And that they could no-how have been better than they were, And that to-day

barefoot, Down from the shower'd halo, Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they were

what joys were thine! ABOARD AT A SHIP'S HELM.

They live in brothers again ready to defy you, They were purified by death, they were taught and exalted

The stars themselves, some shaped, others unshaped, Wonders as of those countries, the soil, trees, cities

WHEN I heard the learn'd astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

of the questions of these recurring, Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill'd with the

OF Equality—as if it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—as if it were not

CITY OF SHIPS. CITY of ships! (O the black ships! O the fierce ships!

City of the world!

City of wharves and stores—city of tall façades of marble and iron!

Proud and passionate city—mettlesome, mad, extravagant city!

(Washington City, 1865.)

wast not granted to sing thou would'st surely die.) 5 Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities

day and night with the great cloud darkening the land, With the pomp of the inloop'd flags with the cities

not what kept me from sleep,) As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west how full you were

and there, With ranging hills on the banks, with many a line against the sky, and shadows, And the city

men, I saw them, I saw the debris and debris of all the slain soldiers of the war, But I saw they were

And the tidy and fresh-cheek'd girls, and the barefoot negro boy and girl, And all the changes of city

THE CITY DEAD-HOUSE.

O I know that those men and women were not for nothing, any more than we are for nothing, I know that

Do their lives, cities, arts, rest only with us? Did they achieve nothing for good for themselves?

A NEWER garden of creation, no primal solitude, Dense, joyous, modern, populous millions, cities and

touching, including God, including Saviour and Satan, Ethereal, pervading all, (for without me what were

what were God?)

burial-places to find him, And I found that every place was a burial-place; The houses full of life were

streets, the shipping, the places of amusement, the Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, the Mannahatta, were

now I am willing to disregard burial-places and dispense with them, And if the memorials of the dead were

I saw the rich ladies in full dress at the soiree, I heard what the singers were singing so long, Heard

I WAS asking for something specific and perfect for my city, Whereupon lo!

people—manners free and superb—open voices— hospitality—the most courageous and friendly young men, City

city of spires and masts! City nested in bays! my city! ALL IS TRUTH.

But I too announce solid things, Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing, Like a

what life, what joy and pride, With all the perils were yours.)

How the great cities appear—how the Democratic masses, turbu- lent turbulent , wilful, as I love them

sloping down there where the fresh free giver the mother, the Mississippi flows, Of mighty inland cities

respond within their breasts, their brains, the sad reverberations,) The passionate toll and clang—city

to city, joining, sounding, passing, Those heart-beats of a Nation in the night.

TO the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little, Once unquestioning

obedience, once fully enslaved, Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever after

We dwell a while in every city and town, We pass through Kanada Canada , the North-east, the vast valley

where I was born, Well-begotten, and rais'd by a perfect mother, After roaming many lands, lover of populous

pavements, Dweller in Mannahatta my city, or on southern savannas, Or a soldier camp'd or carrying my

poems that with you is hero- ism heroism upon land and sea, And I will report all heroism from an American

love, indi- cating indicating it in me, I will therefore let flame from me the burning fires that were

, the electric telegraph stretching across the continent, See, through Atlantica's depths pulses American

me, You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self. 3 I have heard what the talkers were

Trippers and askers surround me, People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and city

All I mark as my own you shall offset it with your own, Else it were time lost listening to me.

, The blocks and fallen architecture more than all the living cities of the globe.

Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you, my brother, my sister?

FROM pent-up aching rivers, From that of myself without which I were nothing, From what I am determin'd

And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?

and visit him to see, he was wise also, He was six feet tall, he was over eighty years old, his sons were

from head to foot, It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction, I am drawn by its breath as if I were

only one man, this the father of those who shall be fathers in their turns, In him the start of populous

A WOMAN waits for me, she contains all, nothing is lacking, Yet all were lacking if sex were lacking,

or if the moisture of the right man were lacking.

original loins, perfectly sweet, I, chanter of Adamic songs, Through the new garden the West, the great cities

We Two, How Long We Were Fool'd. WE TWO, HOW LONG WE WERE FOOL'D.

WE two, how long we were fool'd, Now transmuted, we swiftly escape as Nature escapes, We are Nature,

ONCE I PASS'D THROUGH A POPULOUS CITY.

ONCE I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use with its shows, architecture

What does it mean to American persons, progresses, cities?

A NEWER garden of creation, no primal solitude, Dense, joyous, modern, populous millions, cities and

city of spires and masts! City nested in bays! my city! ALL IS TRUTH.

Once I Pass'd Through a Populous City. ONCE I PASS'D THROUGH A POPULOUS CITY.

ONCE I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use with its shows, architecture

, customs, traditions, Yet now of all that city I remember only a woman I casually met there who detain'd

me for love of me, Day by day and night by night we were together—all else has long been forgotten by

America, and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies, I will make inseparable cities

attraction of friend to friend, Of the well-married husband and wife, of children and parents, Of city

for city and land for land.

the sick, sick dread lest the one he lov'd might secretly be indifferent to him, Whose happiest days were

capitol, still it was not a happy night for me that follow'd, And else when I carous'd, or when my plans were

slow drops, Candid from me falling, drip, bleeding drops, From wounds made to free you whence you were

City of Orgies. CITY OF ORGIES.

CITY of orgies, walks and joys, City whom that I have lived and sung in your midst will one day make

the crossing of the street or on the ship's deck give a kiss in return, We observe that salute of American

All is recall'd as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured, You grew up with me, were

Only I will establish in the Mannahatta and in every city of these States inland and seaboard, And in

Through youth and through middle and old age, how unfaltering, how affectionate and faithful they were

, menials, priests alarming, air breathing, water drinking, on the turf or the sea-beach dancing, Cities

and Oregon; Sojourning east a while longer, soon I travel toward you, to remain, to teach robust American

I DREAM'D in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth, I

dream'd that was the new city of Friends, Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love,

it led the rest, It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city, And in all their looks

Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city spread around me?

invisible, Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me, Fancying how happy you were

if I could be with you and become your comrade; Be it as if I were with you.

what persons and cities are here? Who are the infants, some playing, some slumbering?

I see the cities of the earth and make myself at random a part of them, I am a real Parisian, I am a

Christiania or Stockholm, or in Siberian Irkutsk, or in some street in Iceland, I descend upon all those cities

What cities the light or warmth penetrates I penetrate those cities myself, All islands to which birds

You flagg'd walks of the cities! you strong curbs at the edges! You ferries!

I think heroic deeds were all conceiv'd in the open air, and all free poems also, I think I could stop

Whoever accepts me he or she shall be blessed and shall bless me. 6 Now if a thousand perfect men were

many distant countries, habituès of far-distant dwellings, Trusters of men and women, observers of cities

couple, and the fruits of orchards and flowers of gardens, To take to your use out of the compact cities

Look'd toward the lower bay to notice the vessels arriving, Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were

and yellow light over the tops of houses, and down into the clefts of streets. 4 These and all else were

to me the same as they are to you, I loved well those cities, loved well the stately and rapid river

, The men and women I saw were all near to me, Others the same—others who look back on me because I look'd

also, The best I had done seem'd to me blank and suspicious, My great thoughts as I supposed them, were

SONG OF THE ANSWERER. 1 NOW list to my morning's romanza, I tell the signs of the Answerer, To the cities

, The best farms, others toiling and planting and he unavoidably reaps, The noblest and costliest cities

range and diversity—always the continent of Democracy; Always the prairies, pastures, forests, vast cities

floes, White drift spooning ahead where the ship in the tempest dashes, On solid land what is done in cities

fiddle, others sit on the gunwale smoking and talking; Late in the afternoon the mocking-bird, the American

rude carts, cotton bales piled on banks and wharves; Encircling all, vast-darting up and wide, the American

and down, casting swift shadows in specks on the opposite wall where the shine is; The athletic American