To the East and to the West

by Walt Whitman · 1871
Published 01/07/1871

TO the East and to the West;

To the man of the Seaside State, and of Pennsylvania,

To the Kanadian of the North—to the Southerner I love;

These, with perfect trust, to depict you as myself—the germs are in all men;

I believe the main purport of These States is to found a superb friendship, exalt, previously unknown,

Because I perceive it waits, and has been always wait-ingwaiting, latent in all men.

#cultural diversity #friendship #human solidarity #universalism #walt whitman

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