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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;
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It is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them I
neither accept nor reject;)
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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;)
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It is the life of one man or one woman to-day—the av-
erage man of to-day;
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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,
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All for the average man of to-day. |
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