The great American poet, Walt Whitman regarded the stern, sturdy, determined, unpretentious “spine character” of its citizens the progenitors of America’s golden future.”
For Whitman, the prairies were not just a physical place, but a source of physical and spiritual nourishment for our nation.
“Miss Liberty” is a miniature Statue of Liberty replica located on a hill along Highway 281, just south of the US-281/K-9 junction in Smith County, Kansas.
It is situated about 10 miles south of Smith Center, Kansas, and is often called “Lady Liberty” or “Little Miss Liberty”.
This statue is one of 25 Kansas statues placed by the Boy Scouts in as part of the “Strengthen the Arm of Liberty” campaign.
The wide, open landscape resonated with Whitman’s own expansive vision, and his idealized conception of Americans living “ free of constraint.”
“A vast something, stretching out in its own unbounded scale,
. . . combining the real and the ideal, and beautiful as dreams .” (Specimen Day 853)
Whitman considered the prairie a metaphor for the American spirit, which finds its “expansive, unconstrained identity within this vast sunlit terrain.”
As the ‘emblematic heart of democracy,’ he was convinced the prairie “will be the theatre of our great future,” eventually proving home to its capital city.
“In a few years,” Whitman declares, “the dominion-heart of America will be far inland, toward the West.” (951)
He speculated that our nation’s capital will be restructured according to newer and superior principles.
Whitman observed that American materialism had created great cities, but had also created a superficial society that was spiritually dry, empty and desolate.
His deepest intuitive beliefs held that the west was the place where his vision of the ideal American democracy would find its ultimate and definitive fruition.
West, The American | Whitman Archive
O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!America! America! God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining seaO beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tearsAmerica! America! God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining seaAmerica! America! God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea
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