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 average man of to-day;
It is in languages, social customs, literatures, arts;
It is in the broad show of artificial things, ships, machinery, politics, creeds, modern
improvements, and the interchange of nations,
All for the average man of to-day.
(Walt Whitman)
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Based on Topics: Life Poems, Art Poems, Past Poems, History Poems, Language Poems, Custom & Convention Poems, Politics Poems, Rejection PoemsBased on Keywords: purport, libraries, interchange, improvements, literatures, paged, to-day-the, democracy-the