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.
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