I Was Looking A Long While

Walt Whitman

   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.

Next 10 Poems

• Walt Whitman : I Will Take An Egg Out Of The Robin's Nest
• Walt Whitman : In Cabin'd Ships At Sea
• Walt Whitman : In Former Songs
• Walt Whitman : In Midnight Sleep
• Walt Whitman : In Paths Untrodden
• Walt Whitman : In The New Garden In All The Parts
• Walt Whitman : Inscription
• Walt Whitman : Italian Music In Dakota
• Walt Whitman : Joy, Shipmate, Joy!
• Walt Whitman : Kosmos

Previous 10 Poems

• Walt Whitman : I Thought I Was Not Alone
• Walt Whitman : I Sit And Look Out
• Walt Whitman : I Sing The Body Electric
• Walt Whitman : I Saw Old General At Bay
• Walt Whitman : I Saw In Louisiana A Live Oak Growing
• Walt Whitman : I Heard You, Solemn-sweep Pipes Of The Organ
• Walt Whitman : I Hear It Was Charged Against Me
• Walt Whitman : I Hear America Singing
• Walt Whitman : I Dream'd In A Dream
• Walt Whitman : I Am He That Aches With Love