Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships, and the

thick-stemmed pipes of steamboats, I looked.

I too many and many a time cross'd the river, the sun half

an hour high;

I watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls—I saw them high in

the air, with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies,

I saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies,

and left the rest in strong shadow,

I saw the slow-wheeling circles, and the gradual edging

toward the south.