O Living Always - Always Dying

O Living Always - Always Dying - fact Summary

Included in Leaves of Grass

This short lyric, included in Leaves of Grass, presents Whitman’s image of the self as both living and continually dying. The speaker registers past versions of himself as buried "corpses" to be acknowledged but not mourned, emphasizing movement, disengagement, and ongoing renewal. It distills Whitman’s recurring preoccupations with identity, mortality, and the continuous cycle of becoming rather than a fixed self.