The Prairie States
A NEWER garden of creation, no primal solitude, Dense, joyous, modern, populous millions, cities and farms, With iron interlaced, composite, tied, many in one, By all the world contributed—freedom’s and law’s and thrift’s society, The crown and teeming paradise, so far, of time’s accumulations, To justify the past.
The Prairie States - meaning Summary
America as Cultivated Garden
The poem presents the American prairies as a "newer garden of creation": a populous, modern region where cities and farms, industry and law, bind diverse contributions into a single, thriving society. Whitman frames this aggregation as the crowning, teeming product of historical accumulation that validates what came before. It expresses an optimistic view of democratic progress, national unity, and productive abundance in Leaves of Grass.
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