The United States to Old World Critics


  Here first the duties of to-day, the lessons of the concrete,
  Wealth, order, travel, shelter, products, plenty;
  As of the building of some varied, vast, perpetual edifice,
  Whence to arise inevitable in time, the towering roofs, the lamps,
  The solid-planted spires tall shooting to the stars.
by Walt Whitman
Written around 1891. 56 reads.