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the earth and the sea never gave us; Not through the mighty woods we go, but through the mightier cities

What, to pavements and homesteads here—what were those storms of the mountains and sea?

And do you rise higher than ever yet, O days, O cities! Crash heavier, heavier yet, O storms!

prepared in the mountains, absorbs your im- mortal immortal strong nutriment; Long had I walk'd my cities

ground before me, Continually preceding my steps, turning upon me oft, ironically hissing low; —The cities

Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets: Are beds prepared for sleepers at

Smell you the buckwheat, where the bees were lately buzzing?)

Ah, now the single figure to me, Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio, with all its cities and farms, Sickly

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

City of the world!

city of hurried and glittering tides!

City of wharves and stores! city of tall façades of mar- ble marble and iron!

Proud and passionate city! mettlesome, mad, extrava- gant extravagant city! Spring up, O city!

incessantly asking, rising in cries from my heart, While yet incessantly asking, still I adhere to my city

; Day upon day, and year upon year, O city, walking your streets, Where you hold me enchain'd a certain

Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers? Or by an agreement on a paper? or by arms?

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

European kings removed; I see this day the People beginning their landmarks, (all others give way;) Never were

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

A Broadway Pageant (Reception Japanese Embassy, June 16, 1860) A BROADWAY PAGEANT.

(RECEPTION JAPANESE EMBASSY, JUNE 16, 1860.)

Were the children straying westward so long? so wide the tramping?

Were the precedent dim ages debouching westward from Paradise so long?

Were the centuries steadily footing it that way, all the while unknown, for you, for reasons?

greatest city in the whole world. 5 The place where the great city stands is not the place of stretch'd

Where the city stands with the brawniest breed of orators and bards; Where the city stands that is beloved

city of the healthiest fathers stands; Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands, There the great

city stands. 6 How beggarly appear arguments, before a defiant deed!

Were those your vast and solid?

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

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

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

These, and all else, were to me the same as they are to you; I project myself a moment to tell you—also

I loved well those cities; I loved well the stately and rapid river; The men and women I saw were all

I had done seem'd to me blank and sus- picious suspicious ; My great thoughts, as I supposed them, were

as much of you —I laid in my stores in advance; I consider'd long and seriously of you before you were

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

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

HAVE you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for

They were purified by death—they were taught and exalted.

Were you thinking that those were the words— those upright lines? those curves, angles, dots?

Were you thinking that those were the words— those delicious sounds out of your friends' mouths?

them—my qualities inter- penetrate interpenetrate with theirs—my name is nothing to them; Though it were

echo the tones of Souls, and the phrases of Souls; If they did not echo the phrases of Souls, what were

If they had not reference to you in especial, what were they then?

noises of the night-owl and the wild-cat, and the whirr of the rattlesnake; The mocking-bird, the American

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 afterward

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; I think I could stop here myself, and do miracles

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

to which you were des- tined destined —you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction, before you are call'd

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

American masses!

Were all educations, practical and ornamental, well display'd out of me, what would it amount to?

Were I as the head teacher, charitable proprietor, wise statesman, what would it amount to?

Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?

Congress convenes every Twelfth-month for you; Laws, courts, the forming of States, the charters of cities

American Feuillage AMERICAN FEUILLAGE. AMERICA always! Always our own feuillage!

Always the prairies, pastures, forests, vast cities, travelers, Kanada, the snows; Always these compact

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

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

day, driving the herd of cows, and shouting to them as they loiter to browse by the road-side; The city

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

there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly, musical, self-sufficient; I see that the word of my city

river, passing along, up or down, with the flood-tide or-ebb tide or ebb-tide ; The mechanics of the city

The beautiful city, the city of hurried and sparkling waters! the city of spires and masts!

The city nested in bays! my city! The city of such women, I am mad to be with them!

lines—a desperate emergency; I saw a hundred and more step forth from the ranks— but two or three were

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

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

me from sleep;) As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west, ere you went, how full you were

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

the rising and sinking waves—over the myriad fields, and the prairies wide; Over the dense-pack'd cities

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

what were God?)

…of the questions of these recurring; Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill'd with the

I see a sad procession, And I hear the sound of coming full-key'd bugles; All the channels of the city

TO the leaven'd soil they trod, calling, I sing, for the last; (Not cities, nor man alone, nor war, nor

neck with incomparable love, Plunging his semitic muscle into its merits and demerits, Making its cities

, The superior marine, free commerce, fisheries, whal- ing whaling , gold-digging, Wharf-hemm'd cities

to American persons, pro- gresses progresses , cities? Chicago, Kanada, Arkansas?

I will make cities and civilizations defer to me!

while weapons were everywhere aim'd at your breast, I saw you serenely give birth to children—saw in

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

I see the results glorious and inevitable—and they again leading to other results;) How the great cities

women there—of happiness in those high plateaus, ranging three thousand miles, warm and cold; Of cities

the world—politics, produce, The announcements of recognized things—science, The approved growth of cities

But we too announce solid things; Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing —they

doubt that shallowness, meanness, malig- nance malignance , are provided for; I do not doubt that cities

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

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

shipping, the places of amusement, the Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, the Manna- hatta Manhatta , were

I am willing to disregard burial-places, and dispense with them; And if the memorials of the dead 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 you illustrious, Not the pageants

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

we flit by each other, fluid, affection- ate 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

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

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

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

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

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

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 loving comrade; Be it as if I were with you.

F 5 I see the tracks of the rail-roads of the earth; I see them welding State to State, city to city,

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 pen- etrate penetrate those cities myself; All islands

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