To the East and to the West
To the East and to the West - meaning Summary
National Unity as Kinship
Whitman addresses Americans across regions and asserts a common human potential: he can "depict you as myself" because the same "germs" exist in everyone. The poem claims the United States' purpose is to forge a new, exalted friendship among diverse peoples. It presents national unity as latent but ready to be realized, grounded in mutual trust, equality, and Whitman’s democratic faith in individual worth.
Read Complete AnalysesTO the East and to the West; To the man of the Seaside State, and of Pennsylvania, To the Kanadian of the North—to the Southerner I love; These, with perfect trust, to depict you as myself—the germs are in all men; I believe the main purport of These States is to found a superb friendship, exalté, previously unknown, Because I perceive it waits, and has been always waiting, latent in all men.
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