Whitman in his political life was a democrat. In his poetry he believed in democracy and equality of all members of the society. His definition of democracy can be summarized as “the perfect equality of all people” (Oliver 67). America failed to live up to its ideal of equality; Whitman believed in the central role of the poets in a democratic society. “Of all mankind the great poet is the equable man. Not in him but off from him things are grotesque or eccentric or fail of their sanity[. . . .] He bestows on every object or quality its fit proportions neither more nor less. He is the arbiter of the diverse and he is the key. He is the equalizer of his age and land” (Whitman, The Portable Walt Whitman 334). Whitman decided to play his part