Page:Leaves of Grass (1855).djvu/68

The plumbob and trowel and level .. the wall-scaffold, and the work of walls and ceilings .. or any mason-work:
The ship’s compass .. the sailor’s tarpaulin .. the stays and lanyards, and the groundtackle for anchoring or mooring,
The sloop’s tiller .. the pilot’s wheel and bell .. the yacht or fish-smack .. the great gay-pennanted three-hundred-foot steamboat under full headway, with her proud fat breasts and her delicate swift-flashing paddles;
The trail and line and hooks and sinkers .. the seine, and hauling the seine;
Smallarms and rifles .... the powder and shot and caps and wadding .... the ordnance for war .... the carriages:
Everyday objects .... the housechairs, the carpet, the bed and the counterpane of the bed, and him or her sleeping at night, and the wind blowing, and the indefinite noises:
The snowstorm or rainstorm .... the tow-trowsers .... the lodge-hut in the woods, and the still-hunt:
City and country .. fireplace and candle .. gaslight and heater and aqueduct;
The message of the governor, mayor, or chief of police .... the dishes of breakfast or dinner or supper;
The bunkroom, the fire-engine, the string-team, and the car or truck behind;
The paper I write on or you write on .. and every word we write .. and every cross and twirl of the pen .. and the curious way we write what we think .... yet very faintly;
The directory, the detector, the ledger .... the books in ranks or the bookshelves .... the clock attached to the wall,
The ring on your finger .. the lady’s wristlet .. the hammers of stonebreakers or coppersmiths .. the druggist’s vials and jars;
The etui of surgical instruments, and the etui of oculist’s or aurist’s instruments, or dentist’s instruments;
Glassblowing, grinding of wheat and corn .. casting, and what is cast .. tinroofing, shingledressing,
Shipcarpentering, flagging of sidewalks by flaggers .. dockbuilding, fishcuring, ferrying;
The pump, the piledriver, the great derrick .. the coalkiln and brickkiln,
Ironworks or whiteleadworks .. the sugarhouse .. steam-saws, and the great mills and factories;
The cottonbale .. the stevedore’s hook .. the saw and buck of the sawyer .. the screen of the coalscreener .. the mould of the moulder .. the workingknife of the butcher;
The cylinder press .. the handpress .. the frisket and tympan .. the compositor’s stick and rule,
The implements for daguerreotyping .... the tools of the rigger or grappler or sailmaker or blockmaker,
Goods of guttapercha or papiermache .... colors and brushes .... glaziers’ implements,