Antecedents by Walt Whitman — Read

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 here, as I am; / With Egypt, India, Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome; / With the Kelt, the Scandinavian, the Alb, and the Saxon; / With antique maritime ventures, -- with laws, artisanship, 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.