The Atlantic Online | Flashbacks | America's Bard

Kind of a follow up to my post on Democratic Vistas, is Flashbacks | America's Bard from The Atlantic Online:

"Whitman, a free spirit whose writing enthusiastically celebrated the spirit of individualism and democracy, was essentially an 'optimist,' Calder wrote, with 'an intense and abiding faith in the triumph of right and justice.' He was a poet with 'absolute confidence that the men and women of 'these States,' and of all the world, would finally solve the problem of the unification of all races and peoples.'"

Maybe we will finally justify old Walt's optimism.