All music is what awakes from you when you are reminded
     by the instruments,
It is not the violins and the cornets, it is not the oboe nor
     the beating drums, nor the score of the baritone singer
     singing his sweet romanza, nor that of the men's chorus,
     nor that of the women's chorus,
It is nearer and farther than they.

Will the whole come back then?
Can each see signs of the best by a look in the looking-glass?
     is there nothing greater or more?
Does all sit there with you, with the mystic unseen soul?

Strange and hard that paradox true I give,
Objects gross and the unseen soul are one.

House-building, measuring, sawing the boards,
Blacksmithing, glass-blowing, nail-making, coopering,
     tin- roofing, shingle-dressing,
Ship-joining, dock-building, fish-curing, flagging of sidewalks
     by flaggers,
The pump, the pile-driver, the great derrick, the coal-kiln
     and brick-kiln,
Coal-mines and all that is down there, the lamps in the darkness,
     echoes, songs, what meditations, what vast native thoughts
     looking through smutch'd faces,
Iron-works, forge-fires in the mountains or by river-banks, men
     around feeling the melt with huge crowbars, lumps of ore,
     the due combining of ore, limestone, coal,
The blast-furnace and the puddling-furnace, the loup-lump at the
     bottom of the melt at last, the rolling-mill, the stumpy bars
     of pig- iron, the strong, clean-shaped T-rail for railroads,
Oil-works, silk-works, white-lead-works, the sugar-house,
     steam-saws, the great mills and factories,
Stone-cutting, shapely trimmings for façades or window or
     door-lintels, the mallet, the tooth-chisel, the jib to protect
     the thumb,
The calking-iron, the kettle of boiling vault-cement, and the
     fire under the kettle,

The cotton-bale, the stevedore's hook, the saw and buck of the
     sawyer, the mould of the moulder, the working-knife of the
     butcher, the ice-saw, and all the work with ice,
The work and tools of the rigger, grappler, sail-maker, block-
     maker,
Goods of gutta-percha, papier-maché, colors, brushes, brush-
    making, glazier's implements,
The veneer and glue-pot, the confectioner's ornaments, the
     decanter and glasses, the shears and flat-iron,
The awl and knee-strap, the pint measure and quart measure,
     the counter and stool, the writing-pen of quill or metal, the
     making of all sorts of edged tools,
The brewery, brewing, the malt, the vats, everything that is
     done by brewers, wine-makers, vinegar-makers,
Leather-dressing, coach-making, boiler-making, rope-twisting,
     distilling, sign-painting, lime-burning, cotton-picking, electro-
    plating, electrotyping, stereotyping,
Stave-machines, planing-machines, reaping-machines,
     ploughing-machines, thrashing-machines, steam wagons,
The cart of the carman, the omnibus, the ponderous dray,
Pyrotechny, letting off color'd fireworks at night, fancy figures
     and jets;
Beef on the butcher's stall, the slaughter-house of the butcher,
     the butcher in his killing-clothes,
The pens of live pork, the killing-hammer, the hog-hook, the
     scalder's tub, gutting, the cutter's cleaver, the packer's
     maul, and the plenteous winterwork of pork-packing,
Flour- works, grinding of wheat, rye, maize, rice, the barrels
     and the half and quarter barrels, the loaded barges, the
     high piles on wharves and levees,
The men and the work of the men on ferries, railroad,
     coasters, fish-boats, canals;
The hourly routine of your own or any man's life, the shop,
     yard, store, or factory,
These shows all near you by day and night — workman!
     whoever you are, your daily life!
In that and them the heft of the heaviest — in that and
     them far more than you estimated, (and far less also,)
In them realities for you and me, in them poems for you and me,

In them, not yourself — you and your soul enclose all things,
     regardless of estimation,
In them the development good — in them all themes, hints,
     possibilities.
I do not affirm that what you see beyond is futile, I do not advise
     you to stop,
I do not say leadings you thought great are not great,
But I say that none lead to greater than these lead to.

Will you seek afar off? you surely come back at last,
In things best known to you finding the best, or as good as
     the best,
In folks nearest to you finding the sweetest, strongest,
     lovingest,
Happiness, knowledge, not in another place but this place,
    not for another hour but this hour,
Man in the first you see or touch, always in friend, brother,
     nighest neighbor — woman in mother, sister, wife,
The popular tastes and employments