Great is liberty! Great is equality! I am their follower,
Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft....where you
     sail I sail,
Yours is the muscle of life or death....your is the perfect
     science....in you I have absolute faith.

From: Leaves of Grass 150th Anniversary Edition (Penguin Classics), pg.156

I didn’t imagine Walt Whitman being an optimistic poet. The first few lines of Great Are the Myths is all Walt admiring people and ideas with intensity.