Poetry Friday: Walt Whitman and Blog the Vote

Fourth grade students were talking in the library about the election this week. There were some interesting opinions and perhaps a little misinformation. One of the students asked me who I supported for president. It’s always a tricky question.  Im my house as a child, politics and religion were a private subject. So my answer focused voting no matter who you support.
That’s why I am participating in “Blog the Vote, 2012.” Here’s the “Blog the Vote, 2008.”
This year, I found a poem from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, written around the time of the Civil War. It seems to me that each political season stirs up more divisiveness than the earlier. It’s stunning the amount of money spent to get elected. In “For You, O Democracy,” I found hope in the lines.

For You, O Democracy
By Walt Whitman

Come, I will make the continent indissoluble,
I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,
I will make divine magnetic lands, 

With the love of comrades, 

With the life-long love of comrades.

I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, 

and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies, 

I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other’s necks, 

By the love of comrades,
By the manly love of comrades. 



For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you ma femme! 

For you, for you I am trilling these songs.

I vote because I have been given the right to vote.  I express my opinions on topics throught the balloting process.  My aunt was born in 1919, the year women were finally allowed to vote.  I wished  I had taken the time to discuss this with my grandmother. I cannot imagine not being allowed this right.

Poetry Friday is hosted by Mainely Write, her first time.

Happy Reading.
MsMac