"A Study Guide for Walt Whitman's ""O Me! O Life!"""

By Gale and Cengage

"A Study Guide for Walt Whitman's ""O Me! O Life!"", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Dec 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9780028666242

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Poetry for Students, Volume 60

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A Study Guide for Walt Whitman’s O Me! O Life!

Walt Whitman

1865

Introduction

O Me! O Life!, by Walt Whitman, was published in the Sequel to Drum-Taps in the fall of 1865. It was reprinted in the fourth edition of Whitman's cumulative collection Leaves of Grass in 1867. It is a short poem in which the poet reflects on the frustrations and limitations of his own life and of people's lives generally. Humans struggle along, trying to cope with existence but apparently with little positive result. The poet asks himself what the point of it all is. He concludes that the very fact that people are alive in this ongoing theater of life is enough, and all are offered the chance to make their contributions, whatever they might be. The poem acquired a certain renown in the late 1980s and into the 1990s when it was featured in the movie Dead Poets Society, in which the character John Keating, a schoolteacher played by Robin Williams, recites it to his students in order to inspire them to discover what is most important in life.

Author Biography

Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, a village near Huntingdon, on Long Island, New York. His father, Walter Whitman, was a farmer and carpenter. When Whitman was three, the family