Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/200

19.

I was looking a long while for 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—in this America—the old world
also,
It is the life of one man or one woman to-day, the
average man of to-day;
It is languages, social customs, literatures, arts,
It is the broad show of artificial things, ships, machinery,
politics, creeds, modern improvements,
and the interchanges of nations,
All for the average man of to-day.

20.

1. American mouth-songs!
Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it
should be, blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank
or beam,