 Song of Myself by Walt Whitman A poem originally published in 1855 in Leaves of Grass; first titled separately in 1881. Revolutionary in rhyme, meter, form, and sexual frankness, the poem expresses Whitman's view of ordinary people, places, and events as well as the connectedness among them.
1 I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.
PORTRAIT: Walt Whitman by George C. Cox (1887). CITATION INFORMATION (in MLA format): Whitman, Walt. Song of Myself. 1892 "Deathbed" Edition. Gleeditions, 17 Sept. 2011, www.gleeditions.com/songofmyself/students/pages.asp?lid=313&pg=9. Originally published in Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman, D. McKay, 1891-92, pp. 25-86. |
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