Thoughts of Ownership
Thoughts of Ownership - meaning Summary
Possession as Inward Inclusion
Whitman rejects literal possession and describes ownership as an inward taking: to own is to absorb landscapes, experiences, and future possibilities into the self. He moves from concrete images—waters, forests, hills—to a broader sense of becoming, suggesting the journey and growth are continuous. The poem links present awareness to a faith that what was lacking will be supplied, framing ownership as intimate identification and hopeful anticipation rather than control.
Read Complete Analyses1 OF ownership—As if one fit to own things could not at pleasure enter upon all, and incorporate them into himself or herself. 2 Of waters, forests, hills; Of the earth at large, whispering through medium of me; Of vista—Suppose some sight in arriere, through the formative chaos, presuming the growth, fulness, life, now attain’d on the journey; (But I see the road continued, and the journey ever continued;) —Of what was once lacking on earth, and in due time has become supplied—And of what will yet be supplied, Because all I see and know, I believe to have purport in what will yet be supplied.
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