University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
Leaves of Grass :[1891]

Including Sands at Seventy...1st Annex, Good-Bye my Fancy...2d Annex, A Backward Glance o'er Travel'd Roads, and Portrait from Life
Whitman, Walt (1819-1892)

collapse section 
[section]
expand section 
INSCRIPTIONS.
expand section 
STARTING FROM PAUMANOK.
expand section 
SONG OF MYSELF.
expand section 
CHILDREN OF ADAM.
expand section 
CALAMUS.
expand section 
SALUT AU MONDE!
expand section 
SONG OF THE OPEN ROAD.
expand section 
CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY.
expand section 
SONG OF THE ANSWERER.
  
OUR OLD FEUILLAGE.
  
A SONG OF JOYS.
expand section 
SONG OF THE BROAD-AXE.
expand section 
SONG OF THE EXPOSITION.
expand section 
SONG OF THE REDWOOD-TREE.
expand section 
A SONG FOR OCCUPATIONS.
expand section 
A SONG OF THE ROLLING EARTH.
  
YOUTH, DAY, OLD AGE AND NIGHT.
expand section 
BIRDS OF PASSAGE.
expand section 
A BROADWAY PAGEANT.
expand section 
SEA-DRIFT.
expand section 
BY THE ROADSIDE.
expand section 
DRUM-TAPS.
expand section 
MEMORIES OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
expand section 
BY BLUE ONTARIO'S SHORE.
  
REVERSALS.
collapse section 
AUTUMN RIVULETS.
  
AS CONSEQUENT, Etc.
expand section 
THE RETURN OF THE HEROES.
  
THERE WAS A CHILD WENT FORTH.
  
OLD IRELAND.
  
THE CITY DEAD-HOUSE.
expand section 
THIS COMPOST.
  
TO A FOIL'D EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONAIRE.
  
UNNAMED LANDS.
  
SONG OF PRUDENCE.
expand section 
THE SINGER IN THE PRISON.
  
WARBLE FOR LILAC-TIME.
expand section 
OUTLINES FOR A TOMB.
  
OUT FROM BEHIND THIS MASK.
expand section 
VOCALISM.
  
TO HIM THAT WAS CRUCIFIED.
  
YOU FELONS ON TRIAL IN COURTS.
  
LAWS FOR CREATIONS.
  
TO A COMMON PROSTITUTE.
  
I WAS LOOKING A LONG WHILE.
  
THOUGHT.
  
MIRACLES.
  
SPARKLES FROM THE WHEEL.
  
TO A PUPIL.
  
UNFOLDED OUT OF THE FOLDS.
  
WHAT AM I AFTER ALL.
  
KOSMOS.
  
OTHERS MAY PRAISE WHAT THEY LIKE.
  
WHO LEARNS MY LESSON COMPLETE?
  
TESTS.
  
THE TORCH.
  
O STAR OF FRANCE.
  
THE OX-TAMER.
  
AN OLD MAN'S THOUGHT OF SCHOOL.
  
WANDERING AT MORN.
  
ITALIAN MUSIC IN DAKOTA.
  
WITH ALL THY GIFTS.
  
MY PICTURE-GALLERY.
  
THE PRAIRIE STATES.
expand section 
PROUD MUSIC OF THE STORM.
expand section 
PASSAGE TO INDIA.
  
PRAYER OF COLUMBUS.
expand section 
THE SLEEPERS.
  
TRANSPOSITIONS.
expand section 
TO THINK OF TIME.
expand section 
WHISPERS OF HEAVENLY DEATH.
expand section 
THOU MOTHER WITH THY EQUAL BROOD.
  
A PAUMANOK PICTURE.
expand section 
FROM NOON TO STARRY NIGHT.
expand section 
SONGS OF PARTING.
expand section 
ANNEX TO PRECEDING PAGES. Sands at Seventy.
expand section 
2D ANNEX. Good-Bye my Fancy.

collapse section Collapse All | Expand All expand section
previous section Leaves of Grass :[1891]
next section

I WAS LOOKING A LONG WHILE.

I was looking a long while for Intentions,
For a clew 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 modern—all for the average man of to-day.
previous section Leaves of Grass :[1891]
next section