Leaves of Grass (1860)


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19.

I WAS looking a long while for the history of the
         past for myself, and for these Chants—and now
         I have found it,
It is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them
         I neither accept nor reject,)
It is no more in the legends than in all else,
It is in the present—it is this earth to-day,
It is in Democracy—in this America—the old world
         also,
It is the life of one man or one woman to-day, the
         average man of to-day;
It is languages, social customs, literatures, arts,
It is the broad show of artificial things, ships, ma-
         chinery, politics, creeds, modern improvements,
         and the interchanges of nations,
All for the average man of to-day.
 
 
 
 
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