Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, I WAS LOOKING A LONG WHILE, by WALT WHITMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

I WAS LOOKING A LONG WHILE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I was looking a long while for intentions
Last Line: All for the modern -- all for the average man of to-day.


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.





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