Walt Whitman’s poem “Pioneers! O Pioneers!” presents similar themes to Willa Cather’s novel, O Pioneer! and what it means to be a pioneer. Both literary works discuss the eternal burden of caring for the land and the intuition of some to survive on the land. Whitman describes working the land as, “We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the lesson” (12). The poems illustrates working the land as a task that causes misfortune, anxiety, and pain. It is a job that goes on eternally as the land will always be there. This is similar to how Alexandra, the main character in Cather’s novel, sees the divide. Her father dies early on in the novel and leaves his land to be cared for by his daughter Alexandra. Because this was her father’s dying