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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Crossing Brooklyn Ferry</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">FLOOD-TIDE below me! I watch you face to face;<br> Clouds of the west! sun there half an hour high! I see you also face<br> to face.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes! how curious<br> you are to me!<br> On the ferry-boats, the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning<br> home, are more curious to me than you suppose;<br> And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to<br> me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> The impalpable sustenance of me from all things, at all hours of the<br> day;<br> The simple, compact, well-join'd scheme--myself disintegrated, every<br> one disintegrated, yet part of the scheme:<br> The similitudes of the past, and those of the future;<br> The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings--on<br> the walk in the street, and the passage over the river;<br> The current rushing so swiftly, and swimming with me far away; 10<br> The others that are to follow me, the ties between me and them;<br> The certainty of others--the life, love, sight, hearing of others.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Others will enter the gates of the ferry, and cross from shore to<br> shore;<br> Others will watch the run of the flood-tide;<br> Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the<br> heights of Brooklyn to the south and east;<br> Others will see the islands large and small;<br> Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half<br> an hour high;<br> A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others<br> will see them,<br> Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring in of the flood-tide, the falling<br> back to the sea of the ebb-tide.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> It avails not, neither time or place--distance avails not; 20<br> I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many<br> generations hence;<br> I project myself--also I return--I am with you, and know how it is.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt;<br> Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd;<br> Just as you are refresh'd by the gladness of the river and the bright<br> flow, I was refresh'd;<br> Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift<br> current, I stood, yet was hurried;<br> Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships, and the thick-<br> stem'd pipes of steamboats, I look'd.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> I too many and many a time cross'd the river, the sun half an hour<br> high;<br> I watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls--I saw them high in the air,<br> floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies,<br> I saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies, and<br> left the rest in strong shadow,  30<br> I saw the slow-wheeling circles, and the gradual edging toward the<br> south.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> I too saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water,<br> Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams,<br> Look'd at the fine centrifugal spokes of light around the shape of my<br> head in the sun-lit water,<br> Look'd on the haze on the hills southward and southwestward,<br> Look'd on the vapor as it flew in fleeces tinged with violet,<br> Look'd toward the lower bay to notice the arriving ships,<br> Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were near me,<br> Saw the white sails of schooners and sloops--saw the ships at anchor,<br> The sailors at work in the rigging, or out astride the spars, 40<br> The round masts, the swinging motion of the hulls, the slender<br> serpentine pennants,<br> The large and small steamers in motion, the pilots in their pilot-<br> houses,<br> The white wake left by the passage, the quick tremulous whirl of the<br> wheels,<br> The flags of all nations, the falling of them at sun-set,<br> The scallop-edged waves in the twilight, the ladled cups, the<br> frolicsome crests and glistening,<br> The stretch afar growing dimmer and dimmer, the gray walls of the<br> granite store-houses by the docks,<br> On the river the shadowy group, the big steam-tug closely flank'd on<br> each side by the barges--the hay-boat, the belated lighter,<br> On the neighboring shore, the fires from the foundry chimneys burning<br> high and glaringly into the night,<br> Casting their flicker of black, contrasted with wild red and yellow<br> light, over the tops of houses, and down into the clefts of<br> streets.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> These, and all else, were to me the same as they are to you; 50<br> I project myself a moment to tell you--also I return.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> I loved well those cities;<br> I loved well the stately and rapid river;<br> The men and women I saw were all near to me;<br> Others the same--others who look back on me, because I look'd forward<br> to them;<br> (The time will come, though I stop here to-day and to-night.)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> What is it, then, between us?<br> What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Whatever it is, it avails not--distance avails not, and place avails<br> not.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> I too lived--Brooklyn, of ample hills, was mine;  60<br> I too walk'd the streets of Manhattan Island, and bathed in the<br> waters around it;<br> I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me,<br> In the day, among crowds of people, sometimes they came upon me,<br> In my walks home late at night, or as I lay in my bed, they came upon<br> me.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> I too had been struck from the float forever held in solution;<br> I too had receiv'd identity by my Body;<br> That I was, I knew was of my body--and what I should be, I knew I<br> should be of my body.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall,<br> The dark threw patches down upon me also;<br> The best I had done seem'd to me blank and suspicious; 70<br> My great thoughts, as I supposed them, were they not in reality<br> meagre? would not people laugh at me?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> It is not you alone who know what it is to be evil;<br> I am he who knew what it was to be evil;<br> I too knitted the old knot of contrariety,<br> Blabb'd, blush'd, resented, lied, stole, grudg'd,<br> Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared not speak,<br> Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, malignant;<br> The wolf, the snake, the hog, not wanting in me,<br> The cheating look, the frivolous word, the adulterous wish, not<br> wanting,<br> Refusals, hates, postponements, meanness, laziness, none of these<br> wanting.    80</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> But I was Manhattanese, friendly and proud!<br> I was call'd by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as<br> they saw me approaching or passing,<br> Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or the negligent leaning of<br> their flesh against me as I sat,<br> Saw many I loved in the street, or ferry-boat, or public assembly,<br> yet never told them a word,<br> Lived the same life with the rest, the same old laughing, gnawing,<br> sleeping,<br> Play'd the part that still looks back on the actor or actress,<br> The same old role, the role that is what we make it, as great as we<br> like,<br> Or as small as we like, or both great and small.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Closer yet I approach you;<br> What thought you have of me, I had as much of you--I laid in my<br> stores in advance;   90<br> I consider'd long and seriously of you before you were born.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Who was to know what should come home to me?<br> Who knows but I am enjoying this?<br> Who knows but I am as good as looking at you now, for all you cannot<br> see me?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> It is not you alone, nor I alone;<br> Not a few races, nor a few generations, nor a few centuries;<br> It is that each came, or comes, or shall come, from its due emission,<br> From the general centre of all, and forming a part of all:<br> Everything indicates--the smallest does, and the largest does;<br> A necessary film envelopes all, and envelopes the Soul for a proper<br> time.    100</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Now I am curious what sight can ever be more stately and admirable to<br> me than my mast-hemm'd Manhattan,<br> My river and sun-set, and my scallop-edg'd waves of flood-tide,<br> The sea-gulls oscillating their bodies, the hay-boat in the twilight,<br> and the belated lighter;<br> Curious what Gods can exceed these that clasp me by the hand, and<br> with voices I love call me promptly and loudly by my nighest<br> name as I approach;<br> Curious what is more subtle than this which ties me to the woman or<br> man that looks in my face,<br> Which fuses me into you now, and pours my meaning into you.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> We understand, then, do we not?<br> What I promis'd without mentioning it, have you not accepted?<br> What the study could not teach--what the preaching could not<br> accomplish, is accomplish'd, is it not?<br> What the push of reading could not start, is started by me<br> personally, is it not?   110</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Flow on, river! flow with the flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-tide!<br> Frolic on, crested and scallop-edg'd waves!<br> Gorgeous clouds of the sun-set! drench with your splendor me, or the<br> men and women generations after me;<br> Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passengers!<br> Stand up, tall masts of Mannahatta!--stand up, beautiful hills of<br> Brooklyn!<br> Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out questions and answers!<br> Suspend here and everywhere, eternal float of solution!<br> Gaze, loving and thirsting eyes, in the house, or street, or public<br> assembly!<br> Sound out, voices of young men! loudly and musically call me by my<br> nighest name!<br> Live, old life! play the part that looks back on the actor or<br> actress!    120<br> Play the old role, the role that is great or small, according as one<br> makes it!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be<br> looking upon you;<br> Be firm, rail over the river, to support those who lean idly, yet<br> haste with the hasting current;<br> Fly on, sea-birds! fly sideways, or wheel in large circles high in<br> the air;<br> Receive the summer sky, you water! and faithfully hold it, till all<br> downcast eyes have time to take it from you;<br> Diverge, fine spokes of light, from the shape of my head, or any<br> one's head, in the sun-lit water;<br> Come on, ships from the lower bay! pass up or down, white-sail'd<br> schooners, sloops, lighters!<br> Flaunt away, flags of all nations! be duly lower'd at sunset;<br> Burn high your fires, foundry chimneys! cast black shadows at<br> nightfall! cast red and yellow light over the tops of the<br> houses;<br> Appearances, now or henceforth, indicate what you are; 130<br> You necessary film, continue to envelop the soul;<br> About my body for me, and your body for you, be hung our divinest<br> aromas;<br> Thrive, cities! bring your freight, bring your shows, ample and<br> sufficient rivers;<br> Expand, being than which none else is perhaps more spiritual;<br> Keep your places, objects than which none else is more lasting.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> We descend upon you and all things--we arrest you all;<br> We realize the soul only by you, you faithful solids and fluids;<br> Through you color, form, location, sublimity, ideality;<br> Through you every proof, comparison, and all the suggestions and<br> determinations of ourselves.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=534981" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beautiful ministers! you<br> novices!    140<br> We receive you with free sense at last, and are insatiate<br> henceforward;<br> Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or withhold yourselves<br> from us;<br> We use you, and do not cast you aside--we plant you permanently<br> within us;<br> We fathom you not--we love you--there is perfection in you also;<br> You furnish your parts toward eternity;<br> Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Walt+Whitman">Walt Whitman</a></strong></div>