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Leaves of Grass (1891-92)
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CITY OF SHIPS.
| (O the black ships! O the fierce ships! |
| O the beautiful sharp-bow'd steam-ships and sail-ships!) |
View Page 231
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| 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!
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City of wharves and stores—city of tall façades of marble and
iron!
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| Proud and passionate city—mettlesome, mad, extravagant city! |
Spring up O city—not for peace alone, but be indeed yourself,
warlike!
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| 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,
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Good or bad I never question you—I love all—I do not con-
demn any thing,
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| 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! |
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