Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

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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 prome-
nade;

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.

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