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1
Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!
Clouds
of the west -sun there half an hour high -I see you also
face to face.
Crowds of men and women attired in
the usual costumes, how curious you are to
me!
On
the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross,
returning home, are
more curious to me than you
suppose,
And you that shall cross from shore to shore
years hence are more to me, and
more in my
meditations, than you might suppose.
2
The
impalpable sustenance of me from all things at all hours
of the day,
The simple, compact, well-joined scheme,
myself disintegrated, everyone
disintegrated yet
part of the scheme,
The similitudes of the past and
those of the future,
The glories strung like beads on
my smallest sights and hearings, on the walk
in the
street and the passage over the river,
The current
rushing so swiftly and swimming with me far away,
The
others that are to follow me, the ties between me and
them,
The certainty of others, the life, love, sight,
hearing of others.
Others will enter the gates of
the ferry and cross from shore to shore,
Others will
watch the run of the flood-tide,
Others will see the
shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights
of
Brooklyn to the south and east,
Others will
see the islands large and small;
Fifty years hence,
others will see tham as they cross, the sun half and
hour
high,
A hundred years hence, or ever so many
hundred years hence, others will see
them,
Will
enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in of the flood-tide, the
falling-back to
the sea of the ebb-tide.
3
It avails not, time nor place -distance avails not,
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or
ever so many generations hence,
Just as you feel when
you look on the river and sky, so I felt,
Just as any
of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,
Just as you are refreshed by the gladness of the river
and the bright flow, I was refreshed,
Just as you
stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift
current, I stood yet was hurried,
Just as you look on
the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemmed
pipes
of steamboats, I looked.
I too many and
many a time crossed the river of old,
Watched the
Twelfth-month seagulls, saw them high in the air
floating with
motionless wings, oscillating their
bodies,
Saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of
their bodies and left the rest
in strong shadow,
Saw the slow-wheeling circles and the gradual edging
toward the south,
Saw the reflection of the summer
sky in the water,
Had my eyes dazzled by the
shimmering track of beams,
Looked at the fine
centrifugal spokes of light round the the shape of my
head in the sunlit water,
Looked on the haze on the
hills southward and south-westward,
Looked on the
vapour as it flew in fleeces tinged with violet,
Looked toward the lower bay to notice the vessels
arriving,
Saw their approach, saw aboard those that
were near me,
Saw the white sails of schooners and
sloops, saw the ships at anchor,
The sailors at work
in the rigging or out astride the spars,
The round
masts, the swinging motion of the hulls, the slender
serpentine pennants,
The large and small steamers in
motion, the pilots in their pilot-houses,
The white
wake left by the passage, the quick tremulous whirl of
the wheels,
The flags of all nations, the falling of
them at sunset,
The scallop-edged waves in the
twilight, the ladled cups, the frolicsome
crests and
glistening,
The stretch afar growing dimmer and
dimmer, the gray walls of the granite
storehouses by
the docks,
On the river the shadowy group, the big
steam-tug closely flanked on each side
by the
barges, the hay-boat, the belated lighter,
On the
neighboring shore the fires from the foundry chimneys
burning high and
glaringly into the night,
Casting their flicker of black contrasted with wild red
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 looked forward to them,
(The time will
come, though I stop here today, and tonight.)
5
What is it then between us?
What is the
count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?
Whatever it is, it avails not -distance avails not,
and place avails not,
I too lived, Brooklyn of ample
hills was mine,
I too walked the streets of Manhattan
island, and bathed in the waters around it,
I too
felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me,
In the day among crowds of people sometimes they came
upon me,
In my walks home late at night or as I lay
in my bed they came upon me,
I too had been struck
from the float forever held in solution,
I too had
received identity by my body,
That I was I knew was
of my body, and what I should be I knew I should be of
my body.
6
It is not upon you alone the
dark patches fall,
The dark threw its patches down
upon me also,
The best I had done seemed to me blank
and suspicious,
My great thoughts as I supposed them,
were they not in reality meagre?
Nor is it you alone
who know what it is to be evil,
I am he who knew what
it was to be evil,
I too knitted the old knot of
contrariety,
Blabbed, blushed, resented, lied, stole,
grudged,
Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared
not speak,
Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly,
cowardly, malignant,
The wolf, the snake, the hog,
not wanting in me,
The cheating look, the frivolous
word, the adulterous wish, not wanting,
Refusals,
hates, postponements, meanness, laziness, none of these
wanting,
Was one with the rest, the days and haps of
the rest,
Was called by my nighest name by clear loud
voices of young men as they saw me
approaching or
passing,
Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or
the negligent leaning of their flesh
against me as I
sat,
Saw many I loved in the street or ferry-boat or
public assembly, yet never
told them a word,
Lived the same life with the rest, the same old
laughing, gnawing, sleeping,
Played the part that
still looks back on the actor or actress,
The same
old role, the role that is what we make it, as great as
we like,
Or as small as we like, or both great and
small.
7
Closer yet I approach you,
What thought you have of me now, I had as much of you -I
laid in my stores in advance,
I considered long and
seriously of you before you were born.
Who was to
know what should come home to me?
Who knows but I am
enjoying this?
Who knows, for all the distance, but I
am as good as looking at you now, for
all you cannot
see me?
8
Ah, what can ever be more
stately and admirable to me than mast-hemmed Manhattan?
River and sunset and scallop-edged waves of flood-tide?
The seagulls oscillating their bodies, the hay-boat in
the twilight, and the belated lighter?
What gods can
exceed these that clasp me by the hand, and with voices
I love
call me promptly and loudly by my nighest
name as I approach?
What is more subtle than this
which ties me to the woman or man that looks in
my
face?
Which fuses me into you now, and pours my
meaning into you?
We understand then do we not?
What I promised without mentioning it, have you not
accepted?
What the study could not teach -what the
preaching could not accomplish is
accomplished, is
it not?
9
Flow on, river! flow with the
flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-tide!
Frolic on,
crested and scallop-edged waves!
Gorgeous clouds of
the sunset! drench with your splendor me, or the men
and
women generations after me!
Cross from shore
to shore, countless crowds of passengers!
Stand up,
tall masts of Mannahatta! stand up, beautiful hills of
Brooklyn!
Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out
questions and answers!
Suspend here and everywhere,
eternal float of solution!
Gaze, loving and thirsting
eyes, in the house or street or public assembly!
Sound out, voices of young men! loudly and musically
call me by my nighest name!
Live, old life! play the
part that looks back on the actor or actress!
Play
the old role, the role that is great or small according
as one makes it!
Consider, you who peruse me, whether
I may not in unknown ways be looking upon you;
Be
firm, rail over the river, to support those who lean
idly, yet haste with
the hasting current;
Fly on,
sea-birds! fly sideways, or wheel in large circles high
in the air;
Receive the summer sky, you water, and
faithfully hold it till all downcast
eyes have time
to take it from you!
Diverge, fine spokes of light,
from the shape of my head, or any one's head,
in the
sunlit water!
Come on, ships from the lower bay! pass
up or down, white-sailed schooners,
sloops,
lighters!
Flaunt away, flags of all nations! be duly
lowered at sunset!
Burn high your fires, foundry
chimneys! cast black shadows at nightfall! cast
red
and yellow light over the tops of the houses!
Appearances, now or henceforth, indicate what you are,
You necessary film, continue to envelop the soul,
About my body for me, and your body for you, be hung our
divinest aromas,
Thrive, cities -bring your freight,
bring your shows, ample and sufficient
rivers,
Expand, being than which none else is perhaps more
spiritual,
Keep your places, objects than which none
else is more lasting.
You have waited, you always
wait, you dumb, beautiful ministers,
We receive you
with free sense at last, and are insatiate henceforward,
Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or withhold
yourselves from us,
We use you, and do not cast you
aside -we plant you permanently within us,
We fathom
you not -we love you -there is perfection in you also,
You furnish your parts toward eternity,
Great or
small, you furnish your parts toward the soul.
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