In this quote from the preface to the first edition of Leaves of Grass, Whitman says that the poet is both reflector and guide of the political moment in the nation. He goes on after noting that "nothing in its place is bad" to assert that the poet is:
the equalizer of his age and land. . . . he supplies what wants supplying and checks what wants checking ... lighting the study of man, the soul, immortality—federal, state or municipal government, marriage, health, free trade, intertravel by land and sea. . . . nothing too close, nothing too far off . . . the stars not too far off.
In Leaves of Grass , Whitman tries to show all things in their place as good and, by doing this, to cast light on "the study of man." In pursuing this goal of exploring how humans should live, he...
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reflects his transcendentalist roots, which find in nature, rather than culture, the right order of the universe. This connects to his vision of American democracy, which at its best sheds the problems of European civilization and comes closer to nature. One passage which provides a model occurs in section 32:
They [the animals] do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of
owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of
years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
For Whitman, animals are the model of the perfect state. They live in harmony with who they are, they don't feel guilt or inadequacy, and they don't have a compulsion towards ownership. Most importantly, in terms of Whitman's politics, the animals are equal—they don't "kneel" to others—and they live in the present moment, not paying homage to the past. This can be tied both to Emersonian transcendentalism and Jacksonian "one man, one vote" democracy. As a poet-seer, Whitman is guiding his readers to his vision of a right-ordered social and political world.