Nothing New

The great writers, one piece at a time.

Walt Whitman · Leaves of Grass

Poem 273 of 382 · From Noon to Starry Night

What Best I See in Thee

— ✻ —

[To U. S. G. return’d from his World’s Tour]

What 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, Were all so justified.

Receive Walt Whitman one poem at a time, every morning.
Subscribe →