University of Virginia Library

1. WITH antecedents,
With my fathers and mothers, and the accumulations
     of past ages,
With all which, had it not been, I would not now be
     hero, as I am,
With Egypt, India, Phenicia, Greece, and Rome,
With the Celt, the Scandinavian, the Alb, and the
     Saxon,
With antique maritime ventures—with laws, arti-
     sanship, wars, and journeys,
With the poet, the skald, the saga, the myth, and the
     oracle,
With the sale of slaves—with enthusiasts—with
     the troubadour, the crusader, and the monk,
With those old continents whence we have come to this
     new continent,
With the fading kingdoms and kings over there,
With the fading religions and priests,
With the small shores we look back to, from our own
     large and present shores,
With countless years drawing themselves onward, and
     arrived at these years,
You and Me arrived—America arrived, and making
     this year,
This year! sending itself ahead countless years to
     come.

2. 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.

3. As for me,
I have the idea of all, and an all, and believe in all;
I believe materialism is true, and spiritualism is true—
     I reject no part.

4. 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.

6. In the name of These States, and in your and my
     name, the Past,
And in the name of These States, and in your and my
     name, the Present time.

7. I know that the past was great, and the future will
     be great,
And I know that both curiously conjoint in the pres-
     ent time,
(For the sake of him I typify—for the common
     average man's sake—your sake, if you are he;)
And that where I am, or you are, this present day,
     there is the centre of all days, all races,
And there is the meaning, to us, of all that has ever
     come of races and days, or ever will come.