Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.

323. Thought

OF what I write from myself—As if that were not the resumé;

Of Histories—As if such, however complete, were not less complete than the preceding poems;

As if those shreds, the records of nations, could possibly be as lasting as the preceding poems;

As if here were not the amount of all nations, and of all the lives of heroes.