"To the East and to the West"

To the East and to the West;
To the man of the Seaside State and of Pennsylvania,
To the Kanadian of the north, to the Southerner I love;
These with perfect trust to depict you as myself -- the germs are in
all men;
I believe the main purport of these States is to found a superb
friendship, exalte, previously unknown,
Because I perceive it waits, and has been always waiting, latent in
all men.


Analysis:

This poem is made up of one stanza, with no rhyming scheme, It is an ode to peace, asking people from all over the United States to unite and become friends. The frist three lines of this poem are divided into two parts, which are opposite to each other; “To the East / to the West” (l.1), “to the Kanadian of the North / to the Southerner I love” (l.3), An anaphora is preset in lines 1.3 “to”. This repetition symbolizes that author’s will to send this message to everyone. In line 4, Whitman says “the germs are in all men”; this is a metaphor. The germs, which are small and insignificant at first, can grow and bring both damage but also benefit. The poet is therefore saying that the basis for good and bad actions are in all men. Our goal is to create happiness and friendship (l.7). There is a “general personification” in the first three lives, in which Whitman doesn’t refer to the “East and to the West” or to the “Seaside State and Pennsylvania” (l.2), but to the people who live there. The author’s message is explicitly stated. He perceives that the idea of creating a state based on friendship and mutual support (l.6-7) has always been there. Our goal is to create this state.

http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1948.html