Song of Myself, I, II, VI & LII

Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)



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 air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and
their parents the same,
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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 22, 2023

37 sec read
512

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXX XX XXXXXX XXXXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 658
Words 124
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 3, 2, 6, 5

Walt Whitman

Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. more…

All Walt Whitman poems | Walt Whitman Books

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