by Whitman · Cluster: Identity · Free Verse · Eternal Return
Abstract
A despairing question about the worth of life among foolish crowds, answered that you may contribute a verse; free-verse lyric on melancholy, identity and meaning.
Connections
Topoi: Immortality Through Verse Themes & Concepts: Melancholy, Identity, Self, Artist and Society Forms & Genres: Free Verse
Testo integrale / Full text
Cluster: BY THE ROADSIDE
O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I,
and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the
struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see
around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.