Explore "Advice to a River Steam-Boat" by Maxwell Bodenheim on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ The brass band plays upon your decks, / Like a sturdy harlot aping mirth, / And people in starched shields / Stuff their passions with sweet words, / Life is swishing in the air, / Like a tipsy, unseen bridegroom.
/ O humbly grunting river boat, / Take the churning water and the sun / Like one who plays with his own chains / And flings their turmoil to the sky. / Only a voice can leap above high walls.