Mother and Babe.
I SEE the sleeping babe, nestling the breast of its mother;
The sleeping mother and babe—hush’d, I study them long and long.
Walt Whitman
Most common moods
Poems
O Me! O Life!
O 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 will contribute a verse.
- Locations and Times.
- Ashes of Soldiers.
- An Old Man’s Thought of School.
- Unnamed Lands.
- Or from that Sea of Time.
- Poem of Remembrance for a Girl or a Boy.
- Beautiful Women.
- As the Time Draws Nigh.
- Full of Life, Now.
- Adieu to a Soldier.
- Pensive on Her Dead Gazing, I Heard the Mother of All.
- Italian Music in Dakota.
- On the Beach at Night, Alone.
- This Moment, Yearning and Thoughtful.
- Whispers of Heavenly Death.
Biography
He was a nineteenth-century American poet and journalist, best known for his self-published collection Leaves of Grass. First appearing in 1855, the work expanded over multiple editions and defined his legacy as a poet of democracy, selfhood, and physical experience. Whitman’s poetry employs free verse, long cataloging lines, and a direct rhetorical style that creates intimacy and universality. His central themes include the celebration of individuality, the sacredness of the body, the beauty of nature, and the equal worth of every person. Through poems like “Song of Myself,” he forged a distinctly American voice that embraced the nation’s diversity. Initially controversial for its sensuality, his work later gained recognition as foundational to modern poetry. His response to the Civil War included elegies like “O Captain! My Captain!” on Abraham Lincoln’s death. Today he is regarded as a pivotal figure in world literature, inspiring poets with his formal and thematic innovations.
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