The shapes arise!
Shapes of the using of axes anyhow, and the users
and all that
neighbors them,
Cutters down of wood and haulers of it to the Penobscot
or Kenebec,
Dwellers in cabins among the Californian mountains
or by the little
lakes, or on the Columbia,
Dwellers south on the banks of the Gila or Rio Grande,
friendly
gatherings, the characters
and fun,
Dwellers along the St. Lawrence, or north in Kanada,
or down by the
Yellowstone, dwellers on coasts
and off coasts,
Seal-fishers, whalers, arctic seamen breaking passages
through the ice.
The shapes arise!
Shapes of factories, arsenals, foundries, markets,
Shapes of the two-threaded tracks of railroads,
Shapes of the sleepers of bridges, vast frameworks,
girders, arches,
Shapes of the fleets of barges, tows, lake and canal
craft, river craft,
Ship-yards and dry-docks along the Eastern and Western
seas, and in
many a bay and by-place,
The live-oak kelsons, the pine planks, the spars,
the
hackmatack-roots for knees,
The ships themselves on their ways, the tiers of scaffolds,
the
workmen busy outside and inside,
The tools lying around, the great auger and little
auger, the adze,
bolt, line, square, gouge,
and bead-plane.
10
The shapes arise!
The shape measur’d, saw’d, jack’d,
join’d, stain’d,
The coffin-shape for the dead to lie within in his
shroud,
The shape got out in posts, in the bedstead posts,
in the posts of
the bride’s bed,
The shape of the little trough, the shape of the rockers
beneath,
the shape of the babe’s
cradle,
The shape of the floor-planks, the floor-planks for
dancers’ feet, The shape of the planks of the
family home, the home of the friendly
parents and children,
The shape of the roof of the home of the happy young
man and
woman, the roof over the well-married
young man and woman,
The roof over the supper joyously cook’d by
the chaste wife, and joyously
eaten by the chaste husband,
content after his day’s work.
The shapes arise!
The shape of the prisoner’s place in the court-room,
and of him or
her seated in the place,
The shape of the liquor-bar lean’d against by
the young rum-drinker
and the old rum-drinker,
The shape of the shamed and angry stairs trod by sneaking
foot- steps,
The shape of the sly settee, and the adulterous unwholesome
couple,
The shape of the gambling-board with its devilish
winnings and losings,
The shape of the step-ladder for the convicted and
sentenced
murderer, the murderer with
haggard face and pinion’d arms,
The sheriff at hand with his deputies, the silent
and white-lipp’d
crowd, the dangling of the
rope.
The shapes arise!
Shapes of doors giving many exits and entrances,
The door passing the dissever’d friend flush’d
and in haste,
The door that admits good news and bad news,
The door whence the son left home confident and puff’d
up,
The door he enter’d again from a long and scandalous
absence,
diseas’d, broken down,
without innocence, without means.


