 Complete the following phrase:  These poems also demonstrate Whitmans belief that this war is a good thing for Americas ideals. He believes without such a conflict and threat to society, those ideals could be taken for granted and lost to decay. It seems that war takes binary oppositions, people at all different levels of society, and tethers them together toward a righteous and common purpose. However, Whitman also knows, at least aesthetically at this point, that war does have its horrors. He conveys this through the poem The Centenarians Story in which a veteran of George Washingtons 