Walt Whitman – Page 2 – Interesting Literature

‘I Dreamed in a Dream’: A Poem by Walt Whitman

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘I Dreamed in a Dream’ is a short poem by Walt Whitman. As the repetition of ‘dream’ in Whitman’s title suggests, this poem combines the two principal meanings of ‘dream’: ambition and illusion. Whitman dreamt of a utopian city where ‘robust love’ triumphed and flourished, above all else.

‘I Dreamed in a Dream’ by Walt Whitman

I dream’d in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the
attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth;
I dream’d that was the new City of Friends;
Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust
love—it led the rest;
It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of

‘I Sing the Body Electric’: A Poem by Walt Whitman

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘I Sing the Body Electric’ is perhaps Walt Whitman’s best-known poem, along with ‘Song of Myself’. ‘I Sing the Body Electric’ appeared in the original 1855 edition of Whitman’s collection, Leaves of Grass. It does what its title (added later) announces, with Whitman writing about his own body and its various components – but concluding that these are also part of his soul, since soul and body are one.

I Sing the Body Electric

I sing the body electric,

The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,

They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,

And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.

‘Song of Myself’: A Poem by Walt Whitman

‘Song of Myself’ is perhaps the definitive achievement of the great nineteenth-century American poet Walt Whitman (1819-92), so we felt that it was a good choice for the second in our ‘post a poem a day’ feature. ‘Song of Myself’ is long, but well worth devoting ten or fifteen minutes to reading, whether you’re familiar with Whitman’s distinctive and psalmic free verse style or new to the world of Walt Whitman’s poetry. Below is the 1892 version of the poem, completed shortly before Whitman’s death in the same year.

‘Song of Myself’ by Walt Whitman

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,

I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

A Short Analysis of Walt Whitman’s ‘A Noiseless Patient Spider’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘A Noiseless Patient Spider’ is a little gem of a poem among Walt Whitman’s oeuvre. In this post we’d like to share the poem, and offer a few words of analysis. What does Whitman mean by using the ‘noiseless patient spider’ when depicting his own soul?

A noiseless patient spider,
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

10 of the Best Walt Whitman Poems Everyone Should Read

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Walt Whitman (1819-92), with his innovative free verse and celebration of the American landscape, made his poetry a sort of literary declaration of independence, seeking to move away from the literary tradition associated with the Old World and forge a new, distinctly American literature. Below are ten of Whitman’s greatest poems which demonstrate how he did this.