'Through the divinity of themselves shall the kosmos and the new breed of poets be interpreters of men and women and of all events and things. They shall find their inspiration in real objects to-day, symptoms of the past and future....They shall not deign to defend immortality or God or the perfection of things or liberty or the exquisite beauty and reality of the soul. They shall arise in America and be responded to from the remainder of the earth.'
Quoted from 'The Harvard Classics' edited by Charles W, Eliot copyright of 1938 by P. F. Collier & Son Corporation 'Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books with Introductions and Notes' New York page 407 to 408.
Bill Grace
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-prose-quote-from-walt-whitman-appropriate-to-the-spirit-of-this-blog-1855-preface-to-leaves-of-grass/