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MANNAHATTA.
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I was asking for something specific and perfect for
my city, and behold! here is the aboriginal
name!
Now I see what there is in a name, a word, liquid,
sane, unruly, musical, self-sufficient,
I see that the word of my city, is that word up there.
Because I see that word nested in nests of water-bays,
superb, with tall and wonderful spires,
Rich, hemmed thick all around with sailships and
steamships—an island sixteen miles long, solid-
founded,
Numberless crowded streets—high growths of iron,
slender, strong, light, splendidly uprising toward
clear skies;
Tides swift and ample, well-loved by me, toward sundown,
The flowing sea-currents, the little islands, the larger
adjoining islands, the heights, the villas,
The countless masts, the white shore-steamers, the
lighters, the ferry-boats, the black sea-steamers,
well-model'd;
The down-town streets, the jobbers' houses of business
—the houses of business of the ship-merchants,
and money-brokers—the river-streets,
