Thick-sprinkled Bunting
Thick-sprinkled Bunting - meaning Summary
A Democratic Banner's Claim
Whitman addresses a star-spangled flag as an emblem of democratic ambition and global claim. He envisions the banner’s long, violent path toward dominance, contrasting it with the flags of kings. The poem urges the republican standard to advance confidently and supplant monarchical powers, presenting national identity as both conqueror and unifier of the world’s ships and shores within a single, potent symbol.
Read Complete AnalysesTHICK-SPRINKLED bunting! Flag of stars! Long yet your road, fateful flag!—long yet your road, and lined with bloody death! For the prize I see at issue, at last is the world! All its ships and shores I see, interwoven with your threads, greedy banner! —Dream’d again the flags of kings, highest born, to flaunt unrival’d? O hasten, flag of man! O with sure and steady step, passing highest flags of kings, Walk supreme to the heavens, mighty symbol—run up above them all, Flag of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting!
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