City Of Orgies

   CITY of orgies, walks and joys!
   City whom that I have lived and sung in your midst will one day make
         you illustrious,
   Not the pageants of you--not your shifting tableaux, your spectacles,
         repay me;
   Not the interminable rows of your houses--nor the ships at the
         wharves,
   Nor the processions in the streets, nor the bright windows, with
         goods in them;
   Nor to converse with learn'd persons, or bear my share in the soiree
         or feast;
   Not those--but, as I pass, O Manhattan! your frequent and swift flash
         of eyes offering me love,
   Offering response to my own--these repay me;
   Lovers, continual lovers, only repay me.