"Song of Myself"

Low quality audio of the entire poem

Read by Orson Welles!

"Whitman Illuminated: 'Song of Myself' In Breathtaking illustrations by Artist Allen Crawford" by Maria Popova

For the Full Text of "Song of Myself," click HERE.

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"You shall no longer take things at second or third hand.... nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,

You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,

You shall listen to all sides and filter them for your self."

~Whitman

"I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."

~ Henry David Thoreau

"Song of Myself" Part 1 (with commentary):

"Song of Myself" Part 6 (with commentary):