assembly, yet
    never told them a word,
Lived the same life with the rest, the same old laughing, gnawing, sleeping,
Play’d the part that still looks back on the actor or actress,
The same old role, the role that is what we make it, as great as we like,
Or as small as we like, or both great and small.

     7
Closer yet I approach you,
What thought you have of me now, I had as much of you—­I laid in my
    stores in advance,
I consider’d long and seriously of you before you were born.

Who was to know what should come home to me? 
Who knows but I am enjoying this? 
Who knows, for all the distance, but I am as good as looking at you
    now, for all you cannot see me?

     8
Ah, what can ever be more stately and admirable to me than
    mast-hemm’d Manhattan? 
River and sunset and scallop-edg’d waves of flood-tide? 
The sea-gulls oscillating their bodies, the hay-boat in the
    twilight, and the belated lighter? 
What gods can exceed these that clasp me by the hand, and with voices I
    love call me promptly and loudly by my nighest name as approach? 
What is more subtle than this which ties me to the woman or man that
    looks in my face? 
Which fuses me into you now, and pours my meaning into you?

We understand then do we not? 
What I promis’d without mentioning it, have you not accepted? 
What the study could not teach—­what the preaching could not
    accomplish is accomplish’d, is it not?

     9
Flow on, river! flow with the flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-tide!  Frolic on, crested and scallop-edg’d waves!  Gorgeous clouds of the sunset! drench with your splendor me, or the
    men and women generations after me! 
Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passengers!  Stand up, tall masts of Mannahatta! stand up, beautiful hills of Brooklyn!  Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out questions and answers!  Suspend here and everywhere, eternal float of solution!  Gaze, loving and thirsting eyes, in the house or street or public assembly!  Sound out, voices of young men! loudly and musically call me by my
    nighest name! 
Live, old life! play the part that looks back on the actor or actress!  Play the old role, the role that is great or small according as one
    makes it! 
Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be
    looking upon you;
Be firm, rail over the river, to support those who lean idly, yet
    haste with the hasting current;
Fly on, sea-birds! fly sideways, or wheel in large circles high in the air; Receive the summer sky, you water, and faithfully hold it till all
    downcast eyes have time to take it from you! 
Diverge, fine spokes of light, from the shape of my head, or any
    one’s head, in the sunlit water! 
Come on, ships from the lower bay! pass up or down, white-sail’d