Read by Shane Morris
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Walt Whitman is America’s world poet - a latter-day successor to Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare. His self-published verse collection ‘Leaves of Grass’ is a landmark in the history of American Literature.
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In ‘Oh Me! Oh Life!’, Whitman questions his own existence and the futility of life. He ponders the "endless trains of the faithless," and describes cities full of foolish people, criticising himself for being no better. He laments that things never turn out the way he wants them to, and observes the "sordid crowds" around him who are also fighting through the journey of life. He believes that he is intertwined with these people, spending just as many "useless years" in pursuit of a distant idea.

At the end of the poem, he answers his own question—existence is enough of a purpose for humans to exist, and having life is reason enough for living.