1. ۱1
2. ۲WEAPON, shapely, ..., wan!
3. ۳Head from the mother’s bowels drawn!
4. ۴Wooded flesh and metal bone! limb only one, and lip only one!
5. ۵Gray-blue leaf by red-heat grown! helve produced from a little seed sown!
6. ۶Resting the grass amid and upon,
7. ۷To be lean’d, and to lean on.
8. ۸
9. ۹Strong shapes, and attributes of strong shapes—masculine trades, sights and sounds;
10. ۱۰Long varied train of an emblem, dabs of music;
11. ۱۱Fingers of the organist skipping staccato over the keys of the great organ.
12. ۱۲
13. ۱۳2
14. ۱۴Welcome are all earth’s lands, each for its kind;
15. ۱۵Welcome are lands of pine and oak;
16. ۱۶Welcome are lands of the lemon and fig;
17. ۱۷Welcome are lands of gold;
18. ۱۸Welcome are lands of wheat and maize—welcome those of the grape;
19. ۱۹Welcome are lands of sugar and rice;
20. ۲۰Welcome the cotton-lands—welcome those of the white potato and sweet potato;
21. ۲۱Welcome are mountains, flats, sands, forests, prairies;
22. ۲۲Welcome the rich borders of rivers, table-lands, openings;
23. ۲۳Welcome the measureless grazing-lands—welcome the teeming soil of orchards, flax, honey,
24. ۲۴ hemp;
25. ۲۵
26. ۲۶Welcome just as much the other more hard-faced lands;
27. ۲۷Lands rich as lands of gold, or wheat and fruit lands;
28. ۲۸Lands of mines, lands of the manly and rugged ores;
29. ۲۹Lands of coal, copper, lead, tin, zinc;
30. ۳۰LANDS OF IRON! lands of the make of the axe!
31. ۳۱
32. ۳۲3
33. ۳۳The log at the wood-pile, the axe supported by it;
34. ۳۴The sylvan hut, the vine over the doorway, the space clear’d for a garden,
35. ۳۵The irregular tapping of rain down on the leaves, after the storm is lull’d,
36. ۳۶The wailing and moaning at intervals, the thought of the sea,
37. ۳۷The thought of ships struck in the storm, and put on their beam ends, and the cutting away
38. ۳۸ of
39. ۳۹ masts;
40. ۴۰
41. ۴۱The sentiment of the huge timbers of old-fashion’d houses and barns;
42. ۴۲The remember’d print or narrative, the voyage at a venture of men, families, goods,
43. ۴۳The disembarkation, the founding of a new city,
44. ۴۴The voyage of those who sought a New England and found it—the outset anywhere,
45. ۴۵The settlements of the Arkansas, Colorado, Ottawa, Willamette,
46. ۴۶The slow progress, the scant fare, the axe, rifle, saddle-bags;
47. ۴۷The beauty of all adventurous and daring persons,
48. ۴۸The beauty of wood-boys and wood-men, with their clear untrimm’d faces,
49. ۴۹The beauty of independence, departure, actions that rely on themselves,
50. ۵۰The American contempt for statutes and ceremonies, the boundless impatience of restraint,
51. ۵۱
52. ۵۲The loose drift of character, the inkling through random types, the solidification;
53. ۵۳The butcher in the slaughter-house, the hands aboard schooners and sloops, the raftsman,
54. ۵۴ the
55. ۵۵ pioneer,
56. ۵۶Lumbermen in their winter camp, day-break in the woods, stripes of snow on the limbs of
57. ۵۷ trees,
58. ۵۸ the
59. ۵۹ occasional snapping,
60. ۶۰The glad clear sound of one’s own voice, the merry song, the natural life of the woods,
61. ۶۱ the
62. ۶۲ strong
63. ۶۳ day’s work,
64. ۶۴The blazing fire at night, the sweet taste of supper, the talk, the bed of hemlock boughs,
65. ۶۵ and
66. ۶۶ the
67. ۶۷ bear-skin;
68. ۶۸—The house-builder at work in cities or anywhere,
69. ۶۹The preparatory jointing, squaring, sawing, mortising,
70. ۷۰The hoist-up of beams, the push of them in their places, laying them regular,
71. ۷۱Setting the studs by their tenons in the mortises, according as they were prepared,
72. ۷۲The blows of mallets and hammers, the attitudes of the men, their curv’d limbs,
73. ۷۳Bending, standing, astride the beams, driving in pins, holding on by posts and braces,
74. ۷۴The hook’d arm over the plate, the other arm wielding the axe,
75. ۷۵The floor-men forcing the planks close, to be nail’d,
76. ۷۶Their postures bringing their weapons downward on the bearers,
77. ۷۷The echoes resounding through the vacant building;
78. ۷۸The huge store-house carried up in the city, well under way,
79. ۷۹The six framing-men, two in the middle, and two at each end, carefully bearing on their
80. ۸۰ shoulders a
81. ۸۱ heavy stick for a cross-beam,
82. ۸۲The crowded line of masons with trowels in their right hands, rapidly laying the long
83. ۸۳ side-wall, two
84. ۸۴ hundred feet from front to rear,
85. ۸۵The flexible rise and fall of backs, the continual click of the trowels striking the
86. ۸۶ bricks,
87. ۸۷The bricks, one after another, each laid so workmanlike in its place, and set with a knock
88. ۸۸ of
89. ۸۹ the
90. ۹۰ trowel-handle,
91. ۹۱The piles of materials, the mortar on the mortar-boards, and the steady replenishing by
92. ۹۲ the
93. ۹۳ hod-men;
94. ۹۴—Spar-makers in the spar-yard, the swarming row of well-grown apprentices,
95. ۹۵The swing of their axes on the square-hew’d log, shaping it toward the shape of a mast,
96. ۹۶The brisk short crackle of the steel driven slantingly into the pine,
97. ۹۷The butter-color’d chips flying off in great flakes and slivers,
98. ۹۸The limber motion of brawny young arms and hips in easy costumes;
99. ۹۹The constructor of wharves, bridges, piers, bulk-heads, floats, stays against the sea;
100. ۱۰۰—The city fireman—the fire that suddenly bursts forth in the close-pack’d square,
101. ۱۰۱The arriving engines, the hoarse shouts, the nimble stepping and daring,
102. ۱۰۲The strong command through the fire-trumpets, the falling in line, the rise and fall of
103. ۱۰۳ the
104. ۱۰۴ arms
105. ۱۰۵ forcing the water,
106. ۱۰۶The slender, spasmic, blue-white jets—the bringing to bear of the hooks and ladders, and
107. ۱۰۷ their
108. ۱۰۸ execution,
109. ۱۰۹The crash and cut away of connecting wood-work, or through floors, if the fire smoulders
110. ۱۱۰ under
111. ۱۱۱ them,
112. ۱۱۲
113. ۱۱۳The crowd with their lit faces, watching—the glare and dense shadows;
114. ۱۱۴—The forger at his forge-furnace, and the user of iron after him,
115. ۱۱۵The maker of the axe large and small, and the welder and temperer,
116. ۱۱۶The chooser breathing his breath on the cold steel, and trying the edge with his thumb,
117. ۱۱۷The one who clean-shapes the handle, and sets it firmly in the socket;
118. ۱۱۸The shadowy processions of the portraits of the past users also,
119. ۱۱۹The primal patient mechanics, the architects and engineers,
120. ۱۲۰The far-off Assyrian edifice and Mizra edifice,
121. ۱۲۱The Roman lictors preceding the consuls,
122. ۱۲۲The antique European warrior with his axe in combat,
123. ۱۲۳The uplifted arm, the clatter of blows on the helmeted head,
124. ۱۲۴The death-howl, the limpsey tumbling body, the rush of friend and foe thither,
125. ۱۲۵The siege of revolted lieges determin’d for liberty,
126. ۱۲۶The summons to surrender, the battering at castle gates, the truce and parley;
127. ۱۲۷The sack of an old city in its time,
128. ۱۲۸The bursting in of mercenaries and bigots tumultuously and disorderly,
129. ۱۲۹Roar, flames, blood, drunkenness, madness,
130. ۱۳۰Goods freely rifled from houses and temples, screams of women in the gripe of brigands,
131. ۱۳۱Craft and thievery of camp-followers, men running, old persons despairing,
132. ۱۳۲The hell of war, the cruelties of creeds,
133. ۱۳۳The list of all executive deeds and words, just or unjust,
134. ۱۳۴The power of personality, just or unjust.
135. ۱۳۵
136. ۱۳۶4
137. ۱۳۷Muscle and pluck forever!
138. ۱۳۸What invigorates life, invigorates death,
139. ۱۳۹And the dead advance as much as the living advance,
140. ۱۴۰And the future is no more uncertain than the present,
141. ۱۴۱And the roughness of the earth and of man encloses as much as the delicatesse of the earth
142. ۱۴۲ and
143. ۱۴۳ of
144. ۱۴۴ man,
145. ۱۴۵And nothing endures but personal qualities.
146. ۱۴۶What do you think endures?
147. ۱۴۷Do you think the great city endures?
148. ۱۴۸Or a teeming manufacturing state? or a prepared constitution? or the best-built
149. ۱۴۹ steamships?
150. ۱۵۰Or hotels of granite and iron? or any chef-d’oeuvres of engineering, forts, armaments?
151. ۱۵۱
152. ۱۵۲Away! These are not to be cherish’d for themselves;
153. ۱۵۳They fill their hour, the dancers dance, the musicians play for them;
154. ۱۵۴The show passes, all does well enough of course,
155. ۱۵۵All does very well till one flash of defiance.
156. ۱۵۶
157. ۱۵۷The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman;
158. ۱۵۸If it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world.
159. ۱۵۹
160. ۱۶۰5
161. ۱۶۱The place where the great city stands is not the place of stretch’d wharves, docks,
162. ۱۶۲ manufactures,
163. ۱۶۳ deposits of produce,
164. ۱۶۴Nor the place of ceaseless salutes of new comers, or the anchor-lifters of the departing,
165. ۱۶۵
166. ۱۶۶Nor the place of the tallest and costliest buildings, or shops selling goods from the rest
167. ۱۶۷ of
168. ۱۶۸ the
169. ۱۶۹ earth,
170. ۱۷۰Nor the place of the best libraries and schools—nor the place where money is plentiest,
171. ۱۷۱Nor the place of the most numerous population.
172. ۱۷۲
173. ۱۷۳Where the city stands with the brawniest breed of orators and bards;
174. ۱۷۴Where the city stands that is beloved by these, and loves them in return, and understands
175. ۱۷۵ them;
176. ۱۷۶
177. ۱۷۷Where no monuments exist to heroes, but in the common words and deeds;
178. ۱۷۸Where thrift is in its place, and prudence is in its place;
179. ۱۷۹Where the men and women think lightly of the laws;
180. ۱۸۰Where the slave ceases, and the master of slaves ceases;
181. ۱۸۱Where the populace rise at once against the never-ending audacity of elected persons;
182. ۱۸۲Where fierce men and women pour forth, as the sea to the whistle of death pours its
183. ۱۸۳ sweeping
184. ۱۸۴ and
185. ۱۸۵ unript waves;
186. ۱۸۶Where outside authority enters always after the precedence of inside authority;
187. ۱۸۷Where the citizen is always the head and ideal—and President, Mayor, Governor, and what
188. ۱۸۸ not,
189. ۱۸۹ are
190. ۱۹۰ agents for pay;
191. ۱۹۱Where children are taught to be laws to themselves, and to depend on themselves;
192. ۱۹۲Where equanimity is illustrated in affairs;
193. ۱۹۳Where speculations on the Soul are encouraged;
194. ۱۹۴Where women walk in public processions in the streets, the same as the men,
195. ۱۹۵Where they enter the public assembly and take places the same as the men;
196. ۱۹۶Where the city of the faithfulest friends stands;
197. ۱۹۷Where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands;
198. ۱۹۸Where the city of the healthiest fathers stands;
199. ۱۹۹Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands,
200. ۲۰۰There the great city stands.
201. ۲۰۱
202. ۲۰۲6
203. ۲۰۳How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!
204. ۲۰۴How the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels before a man’s or woman’s look!
205. ۲۰۵
206. ۲۰۶All waits, or goes by default, till a strong being appears;
207. ۲۰۷A strong being is the proof of the race, and of the ability of the universe;
208. ۲۰۸When he or she appears, materials are overaw’d,
209. ۲۰۹The dispute on the Soul stops,
210. ۲۱۰The old customs and phrases are confronted, turn’d back, or laid away.
211. ۲۱۱
212. ۲۱۲What is your money-making now? what can it do now?
213. ۲۱۳What is your respectability now?
214. ۲۱۴What are your theology, tuition, society, traditions, statute-books, now?
215. ۲۱۵Where are your jibes of being now?
216. ۲۱۶Where are your cavils about the Soul now?
217. ۲۱۷
218. ۲۱۸7
219. ۲۱۹A sterile landscape covers the ore—there is as good as the best, for all the forbidding
220. ۲۲۰ appearance;
221. ۲۲۱There is the mine, there are the miners;
222. ۲۲۲The forge-furnace is there, the melt is accomplish’d; the hammers-men are at hand with
223. ۲۲۳ their
224. ۲۲۴ tongs
225. ۲۲۵ and hammers;
226. ۲۲۶What always served, and always serves, is at hand.
227. ۲۲۷
228. ۲۲۸Than this, nothing has better served—it has served all:
229. ۲۲۹Served the fluent-tongued and subtle-sensed Greek, and long ere the Greek:
230. ۲۳۰Served in building the buildings that last longer than any;
231. ۲۳۱Served the Hebrew, the Persian, the most ancient Hindostanee;
232. ۲۳۲Served the mound-raiser on the Mississippi—served those whose relics remain in Central
233. ۲۳۳ America;
234. ۲۳۴Served Albic temples in woods or on plains, with unhewn pillars, and the druids;
235. ۲۳۵Served the artificial clefts, vast, high, silent, on the snow-cover’d hills of
236. ۲۳۶ Scandinavia;
237. ۲۳۷Served those who, time out of mind, made on the granite walls rough sketches of the sun,
238. ۲۳۸ moon,
239. ۲۳۹ stars, ships, ocean-waves;
240. ۲۴۰Served the paths of the irruptions of the Goths—served the pastoral tribes and nomads;
241. ۲۴۱Served the long, long distant Kelt—served the hardy pirates of the Baltic;
242. ۲۴۲Served before any of those, the venerable and harmless men of Ethiopia;
243. ۲۴۳Served the making of helms for the galleys of pleasure, and the making of those for war;
244. ۲۴۴Served all great works on land, and all great works on the sea;
245. ۲۴۵For the mediæval ages, and before the mediæval ages;
246. ۲۴۶Served not the living only, then as now, but served the dead.
247. ۲۴۷
248. ۲۴۸8
249. ۲۴۹I see the European headsman;
250. ۲۵۰He stands mask’d, clothed in red, with huge legs, and strong ... arms,
251. ۲۵۱And leans on a ponderous axe.
252. ۲۵۲
253. ۲۵۳(Whom have you slaughter’d lately, European headsman?
254. ۲۵۴Whose is that blood upon you, so wet and sticky?)
255. ۲۵۵
256. ۲۵۶I see the clear sunsets of the martyrs;
257. ۲۵۷I see from the scaffolds the descending ghosts,
258. ۲۵۸Ghosts of dead lords, uncrown’d ladies, impeach’d ministers, rejected kings,
259. ۲۵۹Rivals, traitors, poisoners, disgraced chieftains, and the rest.
260. ۲۶۰
261. ۲۶۱I see those who in any land have died for the good cause;
262. ۲۶۲The seed is spare, nevertheless the crop shall never run out;
263. ۲۶۳(Mind you, O foreign kings, O priests, the crop shall never run out.)
264. ۲۶۴
265. ۲۶۵I see the blood wash’d entirely away from the axe;
266. ۲۶۶Both blade and helve are clean;
267. ۲۶۷They spirt no more the blood of European nobles—they clasp no more the necks of queens.
268. ۲۶۸
269. ۲۶۹I see the headsman withdraw and become useless;
270. ۲۷۰I see the scaffold untrodden and mouldy—I see no longer any axe upon it;
271. ۲۷۱I see the mighty and friendly emblem of the power of my own race—the newest, largest race.
272. ۲۷۲
273. ۲۷۳
274. ۲۷۴9
275. ۲۷۵(America! I do not vaunt my love for you;
276. ۲۷۶I have what I have.)
277. ۲۷۷
278. ۲۷۸The axe leaps!
279. ۲۷۹The solid forest gives fluid utterances;
280. ۲۸۰They tumble forth, they rise and form,
281. ۲۸۱Hut, tent, landing, survey,
282. ۲۸۲Flail, plough, pick, crowbar, spade,
283. ۲۸۳Shingle, rail, prop, wainscot, jamb, lath, panel, gable,
284. ۲۸۴Citadel, ceiling, saloon, academy, organ, exhibition-house, library,
285. ۲۸۵Cornice, trellis, pilaster, balcony, window, shutter, turret, porch,
286. ۲۸۶Hoe, rake, pitch-fork, pencil, wagon, staff, saw, jack-plane, mallet, wedge, rounce,
287. ۲۸۷Chair, tub, hoop, table, wicket, vane, sash, floor,
288. ۲۸۸Work-box, chest, string’d instrument, boat, frame, and what not,
289. ۲۸۹Capitols of States, and capitol of the nation of States,
290. ۲۹۰Long stately rows in avenues, hospitals for orphans, or for the poor or sick,
291. ۲۹۱Manhattan steamboats and clippers, taking the measure of all seas.
292. ۲۹۲
293. ۲۹۳The shapes arise!
294. ۲۹۴Shapes of the using of axes anyhow, and the users, and all that neighbors them,
295. ۲۹۵Cutters down of wood, and haulers of it to the Penobscot or Kennebec,
296. ۲۹۶Dwellers in cabins among the California mountains, or by the little lakes, or on the
297. ۲۹۷ Columbia,
298. ۲۹۸
299. ۲۹۹Dwellers south on the banks of the Gila or Rio Grande—friendly gatherings, the characters
300. ۳۰۰ and
301. ۳۰۱ fun,
302. ۳۰۲
303. ۳۰۳Dwellers up north in Minnesota and by the Yellowstone river—dwellers on coasts and off
304. ۳۰۴ coasts,
305. ۳۰۵Seal-fishers, whalers, arctic seamen breaking passages through the ice.
306. ۳۰۶
307. ۳۰۷The shapes arise!
308. ۳۰۸Shapes of factories, arsenals, foundries, markets;
309. ۳۰۹Shapes of the two-threaded tracks of railroads;
310. ۳۱۰Shapes of the sleepers of bridges, vast frameworks, girders, arches;
311. ۳۱۱Shapes of the fleets of barges, towns, lake and canal craft, river craft.
312. ۳۱۲
313. ۳۱۳The shapes arise!
314. ۳۱۴Ship-yards and dry-docks along the Eastern and Western Seas, and in many a bay and
315. ۳۱۵ by-place,
316. ۳۱۶The live-oak kelsons, the pine planks, the spars, the hackmatack-roots for knees,
317. ۳۱۷The ships themselves on their ways, the tiers of scaffolds, the workmen busy outside and
318. ۳۱۸ inside,
319. ۳۱۹The tools lying around, the great auger and little auger, the adze, bolt, line, square,
320. ۳۲۰ gouge,
321. ۳۲۱ and
322. ۳۲۲ bead-plane.
323. ۳۲۳
324. ۳۲۴10
325. ۳۲۵The shapes arise!
326. ۳۲۶The shape measur’d, saw’d, jack’d, join’d, stain’d,
327. ۳۲۷The coffin-shape for the dead to lie within in his shroud;
328. ۳۲۸The shape got out in posts, in the bedstead posts, in the posts of the bride’s bed;
329. ۳۲۹The shape of the little trough, the shape of the rockers beneath, the shape of the babe’s
330. ۳۳۰ cradle;
331. ۳۳۱
332. ۳۳۲The shape of the floor-planks, the floor-planks for dancers’ feet;
333. ۳۳۳The shape of the planks of the family home, the home of the friendly parents and children,
334. ۳۳۴
335. ۳۳۵The shape of the roof of the home of the happy young man and woman—the roof over the
336. ۳۳۶ well-married
337. ۳۳۷ young man and woman,
338. ۳۳۸The roof over the supper joyously cook’d by the chaste wife, and joyously eaten by the
339. ۳۳۹ chaste
340. ۳۴۰ husband, content after his day’s work.
341. ۳۴۱
342. ۳۴۲The shapes arise!
343. ۳۴۳The shape of the prisoner’s place in the court-room, and of him or her seated in the
344. ۳۴۴ place;
345. ۳۴۵The shape of the liquor-bar lean’d against by the young rum-drinker and the old
346. ۳۴۶ rum-drinker;
347. ۳۴۷The shape of the shamed and angry stairs, trod by sneaking footsteps;
348. ۳۴۸The shape of the sly settee, and the adulterous unwholesome couple;
349. ۳۴۹The shape of the gambling-board with its devilish winnings and losings;
350. ۳۵۰The shape of the step-ladder for the convicted and sentenced murderer, the murderer with
351. ۳۵۱ haggard
352. ۳۵۲ face and pinion’d arms,
353. ۳۵۳The sheriff at hand with his deputies, the silent and white-lipp’d crowd, the dangling of
354. ۳۵۴ the
355. ۳۵۵ rope.
356. ۳۵۶
357. ۳۵۷The shapes arise!
358. ۳۵۸Shapes of doors giving many exits and entrances;
359. ۳۵۹The door passing the dissever’d friend, flush’d and in haste;
360. ۳۶۰The door that admits good news and bad news;
361. ۳۶۱The door whence the son left home, confident and puff’d up;
362. ۳۶۲The door he enter’d again from a long and scandalous absence, diseas’d, broken down,
363. ۳۶۳ without
364. ۳۶۴ innocence, without means.
365. ۳۶۵
366. ۳۶۶11
367. ۳۶۷Her shape arises,
368. ۳۶۸She, less guarded than ever, yet more guarded than ever;
369. ۳۶۹The gross and soil’d she moves among do not make her gross and soil’d;
370. ۳۷۰She knows the thoughts as she passes—nothing is conceal’d from her;
371. ۳۷۱She is none the less considerate or friendly therefor;
372. ۳۷۲She is the best belov’d—it is without exception—she has no reason to fear, and she does
373. ۳۷۳ not
374. ۳۷۴ fear;
375. ۳۷۵Oaths, quarrels, hiccupp’d songs, smutty expressions, are idle to her as she passes;
376. ۳۷۶She is silent—she is possess’d of herself—they do not offend her;
377. ۳۷۷She receives them as the laws of nature receive them—she is strong,
378. ۳۷۸She too is a law of nature—there is no law stronger than she is.
379. ۳۷۹
380. ۳۸۰12
381. ۳۸۱The main shapes arise!
382. ۳۸۲Shapes of Democracy, total—result of centuries;
383. ۳۸۳Shapes, ever projecting other shapes;
384. ۳۸۴Shapes of turbulent manly cities;
385. ۳۸۵Shapes of the friends and home-givers of the whole earth,
386. ۳۸۶Shapes bracing the earth, and braced with the whole earth.