Throughout Leaves of Grass, Whitman demonstrates the characteristics of an American living within his idea of this nationalistic “merge.” He celebrates the optimistic, the nature-loving, the egalitarian, and the working-class with deep reverence- creating a kind of “Blue-collar Romanticism,” that can function as the ethos of a unified America.

Whitman’s question, “Who need be afraid of the merge?” in 1855’s “Song of Myself” challenges the reader to accept the merging of the varied cultures and backgrounds of America into a single, unified American race. The potential, then, is to use Whitman’s ideals of equality and enthusiasm for democracy to construct a Post-imperial Nationalism which maintains domestic patriotism without mutating into jingoistic colonialism. The tendency of nationalism in the 18th and 19th centuries to devolve into colonialism led the idea of nationalism to become suspect at times. This study examines the evolution of nationalism as a concept, and various manifestations of nationalism in Europe and America. For America to fulfill its great potential, a culture of unity and nationalism would need to be imparted on the people, something that could happen, Whitman hoped, through his poetry. “the greatest poem,” and lauded the tenets of democracy and equality extended to all peoples wishing to live within its borders. Whitman’s preface to his original, 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass called the U.S. Walt Whitman saw the need for unification and sought to become the “Poet of America” who could unite the various divisions of the United States through his poetry. Race and class differences were two central points of division in a country that would endure debates over slavery, contrasting industrial and agrarian lives, chasms between the wealthy and the poor, and racial prejudice and conflict- all of which would contribute to the Civil War. America in the 19th century was a nation that struggled with divisiveness in its population.

The song of myself