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To a Historian

You who celebrate bygones,
Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of the races, the life
    that has exhibited itself,
Who have treated of man as the creature of politics, aggregates,
    rulers and priests,
I, habitan of the Alleghanies, treating of him as he is in himself
    in his own rights,
Pressing the pulse of the life that has seldom exhibited itself,
    (the great pride of man in himself,)
Chanter of Personality, outlining what is yet to be,
I project the history of the future.

Literature Network » Walt Whitman » Leaves of Grass » To a Historian