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Inner Judgments Over Authority
Whitman presents an inner faculty within the soul that quietly judges tradition and external authorities. These inward judges are self-validating: they accept only what confirms their own sense of truth and thus reinforce themselves indefinitely. The poem argues that ultimate authority resides in these private convictions rather than in outward institutions, portraying inner judgment as secure, autonomous, and perpetually corroborating its own conclusions.
Read Complete AnalysesALL submit to them, where they sit, inner, secure, unapproachable to analysis, in the Soul; Not traditions—not the outer authorities are the judges—they are the judges of outer authorities, and of all traditions; They corroborate as they go, only whatever corroborates themselves, and touches themselves; For all that, they have it forever in themselves to corroborate far and near, without one exception.
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