Poems By Walt Whitman Part 7

Away! These are not to be cherished for themselves; They fill their hour, the dancers dance, the musicians play for them; The show pa.s.ses, all does well enough of course, All does very well till one flash of defiance.

The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman; If it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world.

5.

The place where the great city stands is not the place of stretched wharves, docks, manufactures, deposits of produce, Nor the place of ceaseless salutes of new-comers, or the anchor-lifters of the departing, Nor the place of the tallest and costliest buildings, or shops selling goods from the rest of the earth, Nor the place of the best libraries and schools--nor the place where money is plentiest, Nor the place of the most numerous population.

Where the city stands with the brawniest breed of orators and bards; Where the city stands that is beloved by these, and loves them in return, and understands them; Where no monuments exist to heroes but in the common words and deeds; Where thrift is in its place, and prudence is in its place; Where the men and women think lightly of the laws; Where the slave ceases, and the master of slaves ceases; Where the populace rise at once against the never-ending audacity of elected persons; Where fierce men and women pour forth, as the sea to the whistle of death pours its sweeping and unripped waves; Where outside authority enters always after the precedence of inside authority; Where the citizen is always the head and ideal--and President, Mayor, Governor, and what not, are agents for pay; Where children are taught to be laws to themselves, and to depend on themselves; Where equanimity is ill.u.s.trated in affairs; Where speculations on the Soul are encouraged; Where women walk in public processions in the streets, the same as the men; Where they enter the public a.s.sembly and take places the same as the men; Where the city of the faithfullest friends stands; Where the city of the cleanliness of the s.e.xes stands; Where the 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!

How the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels before a man's or woman's look!

All waits, or goes by default, till a strong being appears; A strong being is the proof of the race, and of the ability of the universe; When he or she appears, materials are overawed, The dispute on the Soul stops, The old customs and phrases are confronted, turned back, or laid away.

What is your money-making now? What can it do now?

What is your respectability now?

What are your theology, tuition, society, traditions, statute-books, now?

Where are your jibes of being now?

Where are your cavils about the Soul now?

Was that your best? Were those your vast and solid?

Riches, opinions, politics, inst.i.tutions, to part obediently from the path of one man or woman!

The centuries, and all authority, to be trod under the foot-soles of one man or woman!

7.

A sterile landscape covers the ore--there is as good as the best, for all the forbidding appearance; There is the mine, there are the miners; The forge-furnace is there, the melt is accomplished; the hammersmen are at hand with their tongs and hammers; What always served and always serves is at hand.

Than this nothing has better served--it has served all: Served the fluent-tongued and subtle-sensed Greek, and long ere the Greek; Served in building the buildings that last longer than any; Served the Hebrew, the Persian, the most ancient Hindostanee; Served the mound-raiser on the Mississippi--served those whose relics remain in Central America; Served Albic temples in woods or on plains, with unhewn pillars, and the druids; Served the artificial clefts, vast, high, silent, on the snow-covered hills of Scandinavia; Served those who, time out of mind, made on the granite walls rough sketches of the sun, moon, stars, s.h.i.+ps, ocean-waves; Served the paths of the irruptions of the Goths--served the pastoral tribes and nomads; Served the long long distant Kelt--served the hardy pirates of the Baltic; Served, before any of those, the venerable and harmless men of Ethiopia; Served the making of helms for the galleys of pleasure, and the making of those for war; Served all great works on land, and all great works on the sea; For the mediaeval ages, and before the mediaeval ages; Served not the living only, then as now, but served the dead.

8.

I see the European headsman; He stands masked, clothed in red, with huge legs and strong naked arms, And leans on a ponderous axe.

Whom have you slaughtered lately, European headsman?

Whose is that blood upon you, so wet and sticky?

I see the clear sunsets of the martyrs; I see from the scaffolds the descending ghosts, Ghosts of dead lords, uncrowned ladies, impeached ministers, rejected kings, Rivals, traitors, poisoners, disgraced chieftains, and the rest.

I see those who in any land have died for the good cause; The seed is spare, nevertheless the crop shall never run out; (Mind you, O foreign kings, O priests, the crop shall never run out.)

I see the blood washed entirely away from the axe; Both blade and helve are clean; They spirt no more the blood of European n.o.bles--they clasp no more the necks of queens.

I see the headsman withdraw and become useless; I see the scaffold untrodden and mouldy--I see no longer any axe upon it; I see the mighty and friendly emblem of the power of my own race--the newest, largest race.

9.

America! I do not vaunt my love for you; I have what I have.

The axe leaps!

The solid forest gives fluid utterances; They tumble forth, they rise and form, Hut, tent, landing, survey, Flail, plough, pick, crowbar, spade, s.h.i.+ngle, rail, prop, wainscot, jamb, lath, panel, gable, Citadel, ceiling, saloon, academy, organ, exhibition house, library, Cornice, trellis, pilaster, balcony, window, shutter, turret, porch, Hoe, rake, pitchfork, pencil, waggon, staff, saw, jack-plane, mallet, wedge, rounce, Chair, tub, hoop, table, wicket, vane, sash, floor, Work-box, chest, stringed instrument, boat, frame, and what not, Capitols of States, and capitol of the nation of States, Long stately rows in avenues, hospitals for orphans, or for the poor or sick, Manhattan steamboats and clippers, taking the measure of all seas.

The shapes arise!

Shapes of the using of axes anyhow, and the users, and all that neighbours them, Cutters-down of wood, and haulers of it to the Pen.o.bscot or Kennebec, Dwellers in cabins among the Californian mountains, or by the little lakes, or on the Columbia, Dwellers south on the banks of the Gila or Rio Grande--friendly gatherings, the characters and fun, Dwellers up north in Minnesota and by the Yellowstone river--dwellers on coasts and off coasts, Seal-fishers, whalers, arctic seamen breaking pa.s.sages through the ice.

The shapes arise!

Shapes of factories, a.r.s.enals, foundries, markets; Shapes of the two-threaded tracks of railroads; Shapes of the sleepers of bridges, vast frameworks, girders, arches; Shapes of the fleets of barges, tows, lake craft, river craft.

The shapes arise!

s.h.i.+pyards and dry-docks along the Eastern and Western Seas, and in many a bay and by-place, The live-oak kelsons, the pine-planks, the spars, the hackmatack-roots for knees, The s.h.i.+ps themselves on their ways, the tiers of scaffolds, the workmen busy outside and inside, The tools lying around, the great auger and little auger, the adze, bolt, line, square, gouge, and bead-plane.

10.

The shapes arise!

The shape measured, sawed, jacked, joined, stained, The coffin-shape for the dead to lie within in his shroud; The shape got out in posts, in the bedstead posts, in the posts of the bride's bed; The shape of the little trough, the shape of the rockers beneath, the shape of the babe's cradle; The shape of the floor-planks, the floor-planks for dancers' feet; The shape of the planks of the family home, the home of the friendly parents and children, The shape of the roof of the home of the happy young man and woman, the roof over the well-married young man and woman, The roof over the supper joyously cooked by the chaste wife, and joyously eaten by the chaste husband, content after his day's work.

The shapes arise!

The shape of the prisoner's place in the court-room, and of him or her seated in the place; The shape of the liquor-bar leaned against by the young rum-drinker and the old rum-drinker; The shape of the shamed and angry stairs, trod, by sneaking footsteps; The shape of the sly settee, and the adulterous unwholesome couple; The shape of the gambling-board with its devilish winnings and losings; The shape of the step-ladder for the convicted and sentenced murderer, the murderer with haggard face and pinioned arms, The sheriff at hand with his deputies, the silent and white-lipped crowd, the sickening dangling of the rope.

The shapes arise!

Shapes of doors giving many exits and entrances; The door pa.s.sing the dissevered friend, flushed and in haste; The door that admits good news and bad news; The door whence the son left home, confident and puffed up; The door he entered again from a long and scandalous absence, diseased, broken down, without innocence, without means.

11.

Her shape arises, She less guarded than ever, yet more guarded than ever; The gross and soiled she moves among do not make her gross and soiled; She knows the thoughts as she pa.s.ses--nothing is concealed from her; She is none the less considerate or friendly therefor; She is the best beloved--it is without exception--she has no reason to fear, and she does not fear; Oaths, quarrels, hiccupped songs, s.m.u.tty expressions, are idle to her as she pa.s.ses; She is silent--she is possessed of herself--they do not offend her; She receives them as the laws of nature receive them--she is strong, She too is a law of nature--there is no law stronger than she is.

12.

The main shapes arise!

Shapes of Democracy, total result of centuries; Shapes, ever projecting other shapes; Shapes of a hundred Free States, begetting another hundred; Shapes of turbulent manly cities; Shapes of the women fit for these States, Shapes of the friends and home-givers of the whole earth, Shapes bracing the earth, and braced with the whole earth.

_ANTECEDENTS._

1.