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 and canal craft, river craft. The shapes arise! Ship-yards 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 hachmatack-roots for knees, The ships 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 beadplane. The shapes arise! IO. 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 and 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 dangling of the rope. The shapes arise! Shapes of doors giving many exits and entrances; The door passing 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. Her shape arises, II. 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 passes-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, hiccuped songs, smutty expressions, are idle to her as she passes; She is silent-she is possessed of herself they do not offend her; She receives them as the laws of nature receive themshe is strong, She too is a law of nature-there is no law stronger than she is. The main shapes arise! 12. Shapes of Democracy, total-result of centuries; Shapes of turbulent manly cities; Shapes of the friends and home-givers of the whole earth, Shapes bracing the earth, and braced with the whole earth. CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY. I. FLOOD-TIDE below me! I watch 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, every one 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; S 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 them as they cross, the sun half an 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, neither time or place-distance avails not; I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations, hence; I project myself-also I return-I am with you, and know how it is. 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, the sun half an hour high; I watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls-I saw them high in the air, floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies, I saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies, and left the rest in strong shadow, I saw the slow-wheeling circles, and the gradual edging toward the south. I too 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 shape of my head in the sun-lit water, Looked on the haze on the hills southward and southwestward, Looked on the vapour as it flew in fleeces tinged with violet, Looked toward the lower bay to notice the arriving ships, 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 grey walls of the granite store-houses 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 neighbouring shore, the fires from the foundry chimneys burning high and glaringly into the night, |