411 Walt Whitman - A New Hope
The History of Literature
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The Poem Is a Sovereign
Criticism is infested with a cant of material ism, which assumes that manual skill and activity is the first merit of all men. The poet does not wait for the hero or the sage, but as they act and think, primarily, so he writes what will and must be spoken. Words in s are quite indifferent modes of the divine energy. For poetry was all written before time was. And these transcripts, though imperfect, become the songs of the nations.
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