Walt Whitman

Today is Walt Whitman's (or as Robin Williams called him Uncle Walt "the sweaty-toothed madman") birthday. I found this section of his 'Leaves of Grass' poem called 11-Sun-Down Poem. What a vivid description of the water at sun set.

11—Sun-Down Poem.

I too many and many a time crossed the river,
the sun half an hour high,

I watched the December sea-gulls, I saw them
high in the air floating with motionless
wings oscillating their bodies,

I saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of
their bodies, and left the rest in strong
shadow,

I saw the slow-wheeling circles and the gradual
edging toward the south.


I too saw the reflection of the summer-sky in the
water.
Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of
beams,

Looked at the fine centrifugal spokes of light
round the shape of my head in the sun-lit
water,

Looked on the haze on the hills southward and
southwestward,

Looked on the vapor as it flew in fleeces tinged
with violet,

Looked toward the lower bay to notice the arriv-
ing ships,

Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were
near me,

Saw the white sails of schooners and sloops, saw
the ships at anchor,

The sailors at work in the rigging or out astride
the spars,

The round masts, the swinging motion of the
hulls, the slender serpentine pennants,

The large and small steamers in motion, the pi-
lots in their pilot-houses,

The white wake left by the passage, the quick
tremulous whirl of the wheels,

The flags of all nations, the falling of them at
sun-set,

The scallop-edged waves in the twilight, the
ladled cups, the frolicsome crests and glisten-
ing,
The stretch afar growing dimmer and dimmer, the
gray walls of the granite store-houses by the
docks,

On the river the shadowy group, the big steam-
tug closely flanked on each side by the
barges—the hay-boat, the belated lighter,

On the neighboring shore the fires from the foun-
dry chimneys burning high and glaringly into
the night,

Casting their flicker of black, contrasted with wild
red and yellow light, over the tops of houses,
and down into the clefts of streets.