I am not going to make a habit of quoting chunks of poetry but I have taken a few lines from one of America’s favourite poets to make a more eloquent description on this Francis Frith photograph (c1875) than I could ever write. Whitman never left American shores, as far as I know, but his poem, written in 1865 could not have been more apt for this view of the Liverpool waterfront:
City of ships!
(O the black ships! O the fierce ships!
O the beautiful sharp bow’d steam ships and sail ships!)
City of the world! (for all races are here,
All the lands of the earth make contributions here;)
City of the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides! City whose gleeful tides continually rush or recede,
whirling in and out with eddies and foam!
City of wharves and stores – city of tall facades of marble and iron!
Proud and passionate city – mettlesome, mad, extravagant city!
That’s a great photo. Both the picture and the poem brilliantly capture the essence of Liverpool at the height of its maritime powers.
There is another Frith image of George’s dock from a slightly different angle to this one, but I must say I prefer this one.
It makes you wonder what kind of chaos would be caused by one of those wild storms we get occasionally.