Walt Whitman, "[I celebrate myself and sing myself]"

Text on p. 881 of the full Ninth Edition and p. 656 of the shorter Ninth Edition.





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10

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.

Re-Reading Questions

1. This is the beginning of a much longer poem, Song of Myself. What sort of poem does this opening seem to promise? How do you picture the speaker? What questions do these lines raise for you?

 



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