The+Open+Road

This poem was really one of the best poems, in my opinion, that Walt Whitman has ever written. There are actually some pretty inspirational sayings and quotes within the poem. We were actually assigned, as a group, to read this poem through, pick a part of it that we all liked, and read it out loud to the class. The most inspirational part, I believe, is this part:

"Here is a man tallied- he realizes here what he has in him, The past, the future, majesty, love- if they are vacant of you, you are vacant of them."

As I was reading this in our little group, this particular piece of the poem stood out to me. It's basically telling the reader that you eventually realize what you have in yourself. You might not believe what you have in yourself that you never knew you had. Such things like love, determination, majesty, power, etc. If you also don't have the past, you don't have anything to look back on from your life. But you shouldn't live in the past forever. That's why Whitman also says to look towards the future every day of our lives.

This poem, to me, was by far the best poem we have read yet from Whitman's work. 1200623005