More than a year ago we first read your poems & since then they have done so much
for us that we now write wishing to express our reverence & gratitude. We are Australian
& feel that in Australia a loc_vm.01693_large.jpg people are growing up who will help to give shape to
the thought of Democracy—a people in sympathy with the aim & tendency of
America—& so we want to thank you for having shown us what modern life can &
ought to be—for we
loc_vm.01694_large.jpg recognise your poems as prophecies of the grander future
& the greater religion that is to be. In a new land like Australia—where the young life
is free & rigorous—we believe that your message will be sooner accepted than among
the old-world nations & that a day will come when you will receive not our thanks only
but our whole country's.
Correspondent:
Nothing is known about the correspondent or
correspondents other than that they are an Australian admirer or admirers of
Whitman's poems.