First the poem, then my commentary as well as a couple of other analyses.
O Me! O Life!
Walt Whitman
Oh me! Oh 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.
- Walt Whitman
Whitman Confirms The purpose of life is to sing
It was not me who created this song. I am just adding a verse to it. There are so many recurring entities -people. Most of them are faithless and foolish. Of them, the most faithless and foolish is singer himself, Whitman himself. All of them have so many questions that arise from life. All of them crave their own light, which they think is important. All of them struggle and plod amongst each other in crowds. What good are these questions and struggles? What makes this life worth living is that we can fulfill a purpose. Each person gets an identity for this purpose. And each of these identities can then contribute a verse to the universal song. Each of us is a verse contributing to the song that is the universe. The purpose of life is indeed to sing!
Reminds me of Guru Arjan's Saranjaam Laag:
Oh me! Oh life! - A reading by interestingliterature.com
One of the shortest of Walt Whitman’s great poems, ‘O Me! O Life!’ was featured in the 1989 film Dead Poets Society: Robin Williams’s character recites it to his class. ‘O Me! O Life!’ contains many of the features of Walt Whitman’s greatest poetry: the free verse rhythm, the alternation between long and short lines, the rhetorical (or not-so-rhetorical?) questions, the focus on the self. Before we offer a fuller analysis of the poem, here’s a reminder of ‘O Me! O Life!’.
O Me! O Life!
Oh me! Oh 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.
In summary, ‘O Me! O Life!’ sees Whitman despairing about life, but also, by association, about himself. Whitman was among the most generous-spirited poets of the nineteenth century, and his work shows a refusal to see himself as superior to, or separate from, the world around him. ‘O Me! O Life!’ is an excellent (short) demonstration of this abundance of self-awareness.
Oh me! Oh 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?)
In his pioneeringly exuberant and Psalmic free-verse style, Whitman begins by lamenting the various causes for perplexity that he has: the many faithless people (both those without a faith in something, and those who one cannot have faith in, i.e. the unfaithful, liars and cheats?), the cities full of foolish people, and even himself – he perplexes and worries himself because he is always chastising himself for being one of the foolish and faithless, and indeed, one of the worst offenders…
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,
More attention to the crowd here, the city filled with people, just going through their daily routine (‘plodding’) and low, immoral, and dirty lives they lead (‘sordid’). Life, in summary, is a vain struggle.
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?
Is Whitman alluding to retirement in his reference to ‘the empty and useless years of the rest’ – i.e. the ‘rest’ or remainder of one’s life when one has left the bustling crowds, and the ‘plodding’ world of work? Of course, retirement is also a ‘rest’ of another sort. But no: ‘rest’ predominantly refers to the ‘rest’ of the population – those who don’t work and aren’t part of the crowd, or even perhaps, part of a functioning society.
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
Whitman ends ‘O Me! O Life!’ with a defiant and jubilant answer: the worth of life lies precisely in life: in the fact that we are here, alive, and have the chance to contribute in some small way to the sum of human endeavour and happiness. For Whitman, he can contribute a ‘verse’ to the world, but ‘verse’ here can be taken as a metaphor for any small contribution made to the world: a painting, a piece of music, being a good teacher of young minds, helping others.
Oh me! Oh life! - A reading by gradesaver.com
Whitman writes in his signature free verse with very little formal structure and no rhyme scheme. There are two stanzas: the first one has seven lines, and the second, starting with the simple first line "Answer" contains three lines. In the first stanza, Whitman employs anaphora, repeating the word "of" at the beginning of each line. This repetition puts the reader inside the speaker's head so he or she can experience the poem as a stream of consciousness. The title, "O me! O life!" actually summarizes the poet's entire conflict: he questions his own purpose (O me!) and wonders why life can be so cruel (O life!).
The "question" and "answer" format of the poem allows for Whitman to make an unusual and unexpected choice. While readers might expect the poem to be a sorrowful lament (as many poems are), the poet answers his own question. Whitman uses the second stanza's "Answer" as a way of expressing his own perspective on the meaning of life. He imparts his belief that human life is sacred, and that human beings must appreciate what they have. Although this poem starts out with an eternally elusive question, Whitman chooses to combat his own feelings of helplessness and futility by offering an answer. Instead of letting his lament linger, he uses the opportunity to remind readers (and himself) that the purpose of life is to live.
Whitman chooses specific images to represent hopelessness in this poem. Both "trains of the faithless" and "cities fill'd with the foolish" evoke the themes of modernization and industrialization. The 1800s were full of new innovations that modernized society, so Whitman was writing against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world. He acknowledges that in the context of rapid development and human achievement, it is easy for human beings to feel useless, inadequate, and ultimately, disappointed with their lives. Whitman admits to feeling this way himself - in fact, his lack of condescension here makes his work highly relatable. He does not offer instructions to fix the problem, but rather, he asks his reader to stop and realize that he or she is contributing to humanity simply by being alive.
Whitman chooses a powerful metaphor in the last line that is essential to understanding the poem. He refers to civilization as "powerful play," and insists that each person will "contribute a verse." In this image, Whitman is able to communicate his democratic beliefs (as each person contributes equally) as well as emphasize the importance of art and human expression. This concrete metaphor also allows Whitman to ground his existential philosophy in a relatable context.
Singing oneness!
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