Song of Myself - Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman's best known poem - a vast and multitudinous celebration of American life in which the 'myself' of the title becomes at one with the universe. 'Song of Myself' was first published in 1855 as part of the collection Leaves of Grass and revised several times for subsequent editions. The version read here appeared as a single poem published in book form by the Roycroft Press of New York in 1904. This version is divided into 52 numbered sections, of 'Cantos', corresponding to the number of weeks in the year. Several of these cantos are well known in their own right, including Canto 6 ('What is grass?'), Canto 11 (The twenty-ninth bather), Canto 25 ('I sound my barbaric yawp!') and Canto 51 ('I am large, I contain multitudes'). - Summary by Phil Benson