O Me! O Life!
O Me! O Life! - context Summary
Published in 1867
This short poem, appearing in the 1867 edition of Leaves of Grass, stages an anguished series of rhetorical questions about life’s purpose and human failure, then offers a resolute answer: individual existence and action matter because each person contributes a unique part to the ongoing whole. It condenses Whitman’s democratic, metaphysical optimism and his conviction in the interconnectedness of all things as a response to doubt and despair.
Read Complete AnalysesO 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.
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