The first line in this poem emotes a powerful feeling. By writing about “making the continent indissoluble,” Whitman is creating a backdrop for the rest of the poem. It allows the reader to understand that the words that follow include colossal ideas about a nation of people that endures all things.
Whitman emphasizes certain concepts in this poem by adding multiple instances of repetition. For example, he uses the phrase, “love of comrades” in six lines, out of only three stanzas. I believe this is how he depicts