Written in 1867
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…
The main shapes arise!
Shapes of Democracy total, result of centuries,
Shapes ever projecting other shapes.
Shapes of turbulent manly cities…
Shapes bracing the earth and braced with the whole earth.
(Long Island/Brooklyn poet, Whitman was critical of slavery and its extensions and also critical of Abolitionists at times.)
See contextual reference Livable Cities report
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