ngs,--if
his leaves of grass have the old freshness and nutriment, and be not a
mere painted greenness.

"The pure contralto sings in the organ loft,
The carpenter dresses his plank--the tongue of his foreplane whistles
its wild ascending lisp,
The married and unmarried children ride home to their Thanksgiving
dinner,
The pilot seizes the king-pin--he heaves down with a strong arm,
The mate stands braced in the whale-boat--lance and harpoon are ready,
The duck-shooter walks by silent and cautious stretches,
The deacons are ordained with crossed hands at the altar,
The spinning-girl retreats and advances to the hum of the big wheel,
The farmer stops by the bars, as he walks on a First Day loafe, and looks
at the oats and rye,
The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum, a confirmed case,
He will never sleep any more as he did in the cot in his mother's
bedroom;
The jour printer with gray head and gaunt jaws works at his case,
He turns his quid of tobacco, while his eyes blurr with the manuscript;
The malformed limbs are tied to the anatomist's table,
What is removed drops horribly in a pail;
The quadroon girl is sold at the stand--the drunkard nods by the
bar-room stove,
The machinist rolls up his sleeves--the policeman travels his beat--the
gate-keeper marks who pass,
The young fellow drives the express-wagon--I love him, though I do not
know him,
The half-breed straps on his light boots to compete in the race,
The western turkey-shooting draws old and young--some lean on their
rifles, some sit on logs,
Out from the crowd steps the marksman, takes his position, levels his
piece;
The groups of newly-come emigrants cover the wharf or levee,
As the woolly-pates hoe in the sugar-field, the overseer views them
from his saddle,
The bugle calls in the ball-room, the gentlemen run for their partners,
the dancers bow to each other,
The youth lies awake in the cedar-roofed garret, and harks to the
musical rain,
The Wolverine sets traps on the creek that helps fill the Huron,
The reformer ascends the platform, he spouts with his mouth and nose,

* * * * *

Seasons pursuing each other, the plougher ploughs, the mower mows, and
the winter-grain falls in the ground,
Off on the lakes the pike-fisher watches and waits by the hole in t