What Is Walt Whitman's Insight On America

Insight on America America has always been viewed as a remarkable country by the rest of the world. It is a country with numerous freedoms and opportunities. During the Civil War and the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, America was considered even more remarkable than before. The Civil War would test the legitimacy of the US and it’s opportunities to become prosperous. Lincoln's inaugural address and Whitman’s writings focus on what it means to be an American by demonstrating the horrors the country could inflict on people, showing the stress one goes through while leading a country, and showing people's dedication to their country. Whitman shows the atrocities that occur in a country during a war in several of his poems. In The Inauguration Ball by Walt Whitman, he states “the amputation, the blue face, the groan, the glassy eyes of the dying… the odor of wounds and blood… passing away untended there,” (line 6-8). Soldiers laid in the white house dying not long before this poem was written. These american were willing to sacrifice their lives for the protection of their

Abraham Lincoln reiterates this in the Gettysburg Address. “It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on” (Lincoln 4). The country was intended to remain whole. It was the first country to implement democracy which made it much more important that it stays together. The country was determined to be successful. In Leaves of Grass: Preface Whitman states: “The english language befriends the grand American expression… it is brawny enough and limber and full enough… It is the speech of the proud and melancholy races and of all who aspire” (line 19). The country is one nation and it is unacceptable that it splits. Pride should be reflected from Americans. Without unity the country would lose respect from the