Walt Whitman’s City Of Orgies– Manhattan

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.