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Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass

'In the door-yard fronting an old farm-house near the

white-wash'd palings,

Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped

leaves of rich green,

With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the

perfume strong I love,

With every leaf a miracle - and from this bush in the

door-yard

With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves

of rich green,

A sprig with its flower I break'

(p.329.38)

Walt Whitman was, with Willliam Wordsworth, one of the first to attempt a democratic poetry 'of everyone'. His poems were perhaps the first to celebrate the vastness and the equality of the modern life and can bring humanity and inspiration to notions like 'universal access'.

Joseph Beuys

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