Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass

The shapes arise!
Shapes of the using of axes anyhow, and the users, and all that neighbors them,
Cutters down of wood, and haulers of it to the Penobscot, or St. John’s, or Kennebec,
Dwellers in cabins among the Californian mountains, or by the little lakes,
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 passages through the ice.

The shapes arise!
Shapes of factories, arsenals, 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!
Ship-yards and dry-docks along the Atlantic and Pacific, and in many a bay and by-place,
The live-oak kelsons, the pine planks, the spars, the hackmatuck-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 augur and little augur, the adze, bolt, line, square, gouge, bead-plane.

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 pill-box, the disgraceful ointment-box, the nauseous application, and him or her applying it,
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 slats of the bed of a corrupted body, the bed of the corruption of gluttony or alcoholic drinks,
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 so 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 from a long and scandalous absence, diseased, broken down, without innocence, without means.

Their shapes arise, the shapes of full-sized men!
Men taciturn yet loving, used to the open air, and the manners of the open air,
Saying their ardor in native forms, saying the old response,
Take what I have then, (saying fain,) take the pay you approached for,
Take the white tears of my blood, if that is what you are after.

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 passes, nothing is concealed from her,
She is none the less considerate or friendly therefore,
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 them, she is strong,
She too is a law of nature, there is no law greater than she is.

His shape arises!
Arrogant, masculine, naive, rowdyish,
Laugher, weeper, worker, idler, citizen, countryman,
Saunterer of woods, stander upon hills, summer swimmer in rivers or by the sea,
Of pure American breed, of reckless health, his body perfect, free from taint from top to toe, free forever from headache and dyspepsia, clean-breathed,
Ample-limbed, a good feeder, weight a hundred and eighty pounds, full-blooded, six feet high, forty inches round the breast and back,
Countenance sun-burnt, bearded, calm, unrefined,
Reminder of animals, meeter of savage and gentleman on equal terms,
Attitudes lithe and erect, costume free, neck open, of slow movement on foot,
Passer of his right arm round the shoulders of his friends, companion of the street,
Persuader always of people to give him their sweetest touches, and never their meanest,
A Manhattanese bred, fond of Brooklyn, fond of Broadway, fond of the life of the wharves and the great ferries,
Enterer everywhere, welcomed everywhere, easily understood after all,
Never offering others, always offering himself, corroborating his phrenology,
Voluptuous, inhabitive, combative, conscientious, alimentive, intuitive, of copious friendship, sublimity, firmness, self-esteem, comparison, individuality, form, locality, eventuality,
Avowing by life, manners, works, to contribute illustrations of results of The States,
Teacher of the unquenchable creed, namely, egotism,
Inviter of others continually henceforth to try their strength against his.

The shapes arise!
Shapes of America, shapes of centuries,
Shapes of those that do not joke with life, but are in earnest with life,
Shapes ever projecting other shapes,
Shapes of a hundred Free States, begetting another hundred north and south,
Shapes of the turbulent manly cities,
Shapes of the untamed breed of young men and natural persons,
Shapes of women fit for These States,
Shapes of the composition of all the varieties of the earth,
Shapes of the friends and home-givers of the whole earth,
Shapes bracing the whole earth, and braced with the whole earth.

Great are the myths, I too delight in them,
Great are Adam and Eve, I too look back and accept them,
Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets, women, sages, inventors, rulers, warriors, priests.

Great is liberty! Great is equality! I am their follower,
Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you sail, I sail!
Yours is the muscle of life or death, yours is the perfect science, in you I have absolute faith.

Great is today, and beautiful,
It is good to live in this age, there never was any better.

Great are the plunges, throes, triumphs, falls of democracy,
Great the reformers, with their lapses and screams,
Great the daring and venture of sailors on new explorations.

Great are yourself and myself,
We are just as good and bad as the oldest and youngest or any,
What the best and worst did, we could do,
What they felt, do not we feel it in ourselves?
What they wished, do we not wish the same?