Leaves of Grass (1871-72)


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I was Looking a Long While.

I WAS looking a long while for a clue to 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—(the purport and aim of all the
         past;)
It is the life of one man or one woman to-day—the av-
         erage man of to-day;
It is in languages, social customs, literatures, arts;
It is in the broad show of artificial things, ships, ma-
         chinery, politics, creeds, modern improvements,
         and the interchange of nations,
All for the average man of to-day.
 
 
 
 
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