The Walt Whitman Archive
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About this Item
Title: What Best I See In Thee
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: December 17, 1879
Whitman Archive ID: per.00146
Source: The Philadelphia Press 17 December 1879: 8. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm copy of an original issue. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the periodical poems, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang, April Lambert, and Susan Belasco
 image 1 |  cropped image 1 |
WHAT BEST I SEE IN THEE.1
[GENERAL GRANT IN PHILADELPHIA, DECEMBER —, 1879.]
What best I see in thee,
Is not that where thou mov'st down history's
great highways,
great highways,
Ever undimm'd by time shoots warlike vic-
tory's dazzle;
tory's dazzle;
Or that thou sat'st where Washington, Lincoln
sat, ruling the land in peace;
sat, ruling the land in peace;
Or thou the man whom feudal Europe feted,
venerable Asia swarm'd upon;
venerable Asia swarm'd upon;
Who walk'd with kings with even pace the
round world's promenade;
round world's promenade;
But that in war and peace, and in thy walks
with kings,
with kings,
These average prairie sovereigns of the west,
Kansas, Missouri, Illinois,
Kansas, Missouri, Illinois,
Ohio's, Indiana's millions, comrades, farmers,
soldiers, all to the front,
soldiers, all to the front,
Invisibly with thee walking with kings with
even pace the round world's promenade,
even pace the round world's promenade,
Were all so justified.
WALT WHITMAN.
St. Louis, December 1s.