Poets To Come

Walt Whitman

   POETS to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!
   Not to-day is to justify me, and answer what I am for;
   But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than
         before known,
   Arouse! Arouse--for you must justify me--you must answer.
   I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future,
   I but advance a moment, only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness.
   I am a man who, sauntering along, without fully stopping, turns a
         casual look upon you, and then averts his face,
   Leaving it to you to prove and define it,
   Expecting the main things from you.

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