What Best I See in Thee
What Best I See in Thee - meaning Summary
Democracy Honors Ordinary Folk
Whitman praises a public figure not for elite honors or historic victories but for carrying ordinary Americans—the farmers, soldiers, and prairie communities—into the world’s spotlight. The poem insists that what matters is democratic solidarity: that Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and other Western peoples are "invisibly" present when their leaders meet kings. It celebrates collective dignity and the poet’s admiration for common citizens sharing power and recognition.
Read Complete AnalysesWHAT best I see in thee, Is not that where thou mov’st down history’s great highways, Ever undimm’d by time shoots warlike victory’s dazzle, Or that thou sat’st where Washington sat, ruling the land in peace, Or thou the man whom feudal Europe feted, venerable Asia, swarm’d upon, Who walk’d with kings with even pace the round world’s promenade; But that in foreign lands, in all thy walks with kings, Those prairie sovereigns of the West, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio’s, Indiana’s millions, comrades, farmers, soldiers, all to the front, Invisibly with thee walking with kings with even pace the round world’s promenade, We all so justified.
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