O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I,
and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the
struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see
around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring–What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.
That you are here–that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

– O Me O Life by Walt Whitman

Related posts:

1. Poem of the day – Life and Death by Walt Whitman The two old, simple problems ever intertwined,Close home, elusive, present, baffled, grappled.By each successive age insoluble, pass’d on,To ours to-day–and we pass on the same. – Life and Death by Walt Whitman...
2. Poem of the day – Hush’d Be the Camps To-Day [May 4, 1865] by Walt Whitman Hush’d be the camps to-day,And soldiers let us drape our war-worn weapons,And each with musing soul retire to celebrate,Our dear commander’s death. No more for him life’s stormy conflicts,Nor victory, nor defeat–no more time’s dark events,Charging like ceaseless clouds across the sky.But sing poet in our name, Sing of the love we bore him–because you, [...]...
3. Poem of the day – I Dream’d 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 that [...]...
4. Poem of the day – By That Long Scan of Waves by Walt Whitman By that long scan of waves, myself call’d back, resumed upon myself,In every crest some undulating light or shade–some retrospect,Joys, travels, studies, silent panoramas–scenes ephemeral,The long past war, the battles, hospital sights, the wounded and the dead,Myself through every by-gone phase–my idle youth–old age at hand,My three-score years of life summ’d up, and more, and [...]...
5. Poem of the day – I Sit and Look Out by Walt Whitman I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame,I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done,I see in low life the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate,I see the wife misused by her husband, I [...]...