miri

I hear the sound of the human voice . . . . a sound I love,
I hear all sounds as the are tuned to their uses . . . . sounds of the city . . . . sound of the day and night;
Talkative young ones to those that like them . . . . the recitative of fish-pedlars and fruit-pedlars . . . . the laud laugh of the work people at their meals.
The angry base of disjointed friendship . . . . the faint tones of the sick,
The judge with hands tight to the desk, his shake lips pronouncing a death-sentence,
The heave’e’yo of stevedores unlanding ships by the wharves . . . . the refrain of the anchor-lifters;
The ring of alarm-bells . . . . the cry of the fire . . . . the whirr of swift-streaking engines and hose-carts with premonitory tinkles and colored lights,
The steam-whistle . . . . the solid roll of the train of approaching cars;
The slow-march played  at night at the head of the association,
They go to guard some corpse . . . . the flag-tops are draped with black muslin.

page 56-57

image is believed to has been taken in mid 19 century showing pedestrians at South Brooklyn
brooklynhistory.blogspot.com/

> The reason why I decided to quote these lines is because Whitman described a moment that he was carefully observing, what was going on around him. He explains every voice he hears, and he relates it to him self. for example “I hear the sound of the human voice . . . .a sound I love.”  Whitman liked to observe people as all of us sometime like to do while he sit in a coffee shop or from a balcony.

The image I chose is believed to be sometime mid 1800. The image shows a busy street in Brooklyn where no one looks like are posing for the camera but rather moving freely, same as when we observe someone and they do not know about it.