Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | Middle States: New York, the City, N. Y. | | Hymn of the City | | William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) |
| | | NOT in the solitude | |
| Alone may man commune with heaven, or see | |
| Only in savage wood | |
| And sunny vale, the present Deity; | |
| Or only hear his voice | 5 |
| Where the winds whisper and the waves rejoice. | |
| |
| Even here do I behold | |
| Thy steps, Almighty!—here, amidst the crowd, | |
| Through the great city rolled, | |
| With everlasting murmur deep and loud,— | 10 |
| Choking the ways that wind | |
| ’Mongst the proud piles, the work of human kind. | |
| |
| Thy golden sunshine comes | |
| From the round heaven, and on their dwellings lies, | |
| And lights their inner homes; | 15 |
| For them thou fill’st with air the unbounded skies, | |
| And givest them the stores | |
| Of ocean, and the harvests of its shores. | |
| |
| Thy spirit is around, | |
| Quickening the restless mass that sweeps along; | 20 |
| And this eternal sound,— | |
| Voices and footfalls of the numberless throng,— | |
| Like the resounding sea, | |
| Or like the rainy tempest, speaks of thee. | |
| |
| And when the hours of rest | 25 |
| Come, like a calm upon the mid-sea brine, | |
| Hushing its billowy breast,— | |
| The quiet of that moment too is thine; | |
| It breathes of Him who keeps | |
| The vast and helpless city while it sleeps. | 30 | | | |
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