For the final day of National Poetry Month, here’s a good quote from Whitman:
The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.
(Preface to the 1855 Edition of Leaves of Grass)
Poetry, much like music, always takes place in a local context. While there are bands that are created to appeal to everyone, the music they make is inevitably boring and without any discernible character. In the same way, poetry is best understood within a geographical and historical context. Whitman cannot be completely understood outside of the context of the nation he so fully absorbed and wrote about.
Of course, the irony of the quote that America didn’t really absorb Whitman until later in his life, and especially after his death.