 | Leaves of grass (1872) |  |
2
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O but it is not the years—it is I—it is You;We touch all laws, and tally all antecedents;
We are the skald, the oracle, the monk, and the knight—we easily include them, and more;
We stand amid time, beginningless and endless—we stand amid evil and good;
All swings around us—there is as much darkness as light;
The very sun swings itself and its system of planets around us;
Its sun, and its again, all swing around us.
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As for me, (torn, stormy, even as I, amid these vehement days,)I have the idea of all, and am all, and believe in all;
I believe materialism is true, and spiritualism is true—I reject no part.
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Have I forgotten any part?Come to me, whoever and whatever, till I give you recognition.
5
I respect Assyria, China, Teutonia, and the Hebrews;I adopt each theory, myth, god, and demi-god;
I see that the old accounts, bibles, genealogies, are true, without exception;
I assert that all past days were what they should have been;
And that they could no-how have been better than they were,
And that to-day is what it should be—and that America is,
And that to-day and America could no-how be better than they are.
| Leaves of grass (1872) | |