From
Leaves of Grass, by
Walt Whitman:
City of Ships!
(O the black ships! O the fierce ships!
O the beautiful sharp-bow'd steam-ships and
sail-ships!)
City of the world! (for all races are here,
All the lands of the earth make contributions here;)
City of the sea! city of hurried and
glittering tides!
City whose gleeful tides continually rush or recede, whirling
in and out with eddies and
foam!
City of wharves and stores — city of tall façades of
marble and
iron!
Proud and
passionate city — mettlesome, mad,
extravagant
city!
Spring up O city — not for
peace alone, but be indeed yourself,
warlike!
Fear not — submit to no models but your own O city!
Behold me — incarnate me as I have incarnated you!
I have rejected nothing you offer'd me — whom you adopted I have adopted,
Good or bad I never question you — I love all — I do not condemn anything,
I chant and celebrate all that is yours — yet peace no more,
In peace I chanted peace, but now the
drum of war is mine,
War, red war is my song through your streets, O city!