665

WALT WHITMAN

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) is one of the most renowned poets in the American canon. He was born in Huntington, Long Island, as the second of nine children to Walter and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman. He attended public school until age eleven, at which time he concluded his formal schooling and took a job as a printer’s assistant. He quickly learned the printing trade, and at age seventeen, he became a teacher. He continued to teach until 1841, when he became a full-time journalist. Whitman founded and served as editor of the Long-Islander, a weekly Huntington newspaper, and went on to edit several other newspapers in the New York area as well as the New Orleans Crescent before leaving the newspaper business in 1848. He moved back in with his parents at that point, working as a part-time carpenter and beginning work on Leaves of Grass, his most enduring and famous collection of poems. He first published Leaves at his own expense in 1855, though he continued to revise it several times throughout the rest of his life. “One Song, America, Before I Go” first appeared in the 1900 edition of Leaves of Grass.

One Song, America, Before I Go

One song, America, before I go,

I’d sing, o’er all the rest, with trumpet sound,

For thee — the Future.

I’d sow a seed for thee of endless Nationality;

5 I’d fashion thy Ensemble, including Body and Soul;

I’d show, away ahead, thy real Union, and how it may be accomplish’d.

(The paths to the House I seek to make,

But leave to those to come, the House itself.)

Belief I sing — and Preparation;

10 As Life and Nature are not great with reference to the Present only,

But greater still from what is yet to come,

Out of that formula for Thee I sing.

Topics for Critical Thinking and Writing

  1. Whitman identifies his poem as a song for America. What kinds of songs do you usually think of when you think about America? What kind of song of America does Whitman sing here (and to what other songs does he allude)? How do you think Whitman’s tone compares to other songs about the country?

  2. Why is the future important in this poem? What argument is Whitman making about the present and past of America?

  3. “One Song, America, Before I Go” was originally published in 1900. If Whitman were alive today, how do you think he would assess the state of America? Do you think he would think that the “Belief” and “Preparation” (l. 9) he advised had been heeded? Why, or why not?