CITY of orgies, walks and joys!
City whom that I have lived and sung in your midst will one day make you illustrious,
Not the pageants of you-not your shifting tableaux, your spectacles, repay me;
Not the interminable rows of your houses-nor the ships at the wharves,
Nor the processions in the streets, nor the bright windows, with goods in them;
Nor to converse with learn’d persons, or bear my share in the soiree or feast;
Not those-but, as I pass, O Manhattan! your frequent and swift flash of eyes offering
me
love,
Offering response to my own-these repay me;
Lovers, continual lovers, only repay me.
(Walt Whitman)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Cities PoemsBased on Keywords: processions, spectacles, pageants, wharves, orgies, tableaux, soiree, you-not, those-but