Lyric Poem · Life
O Me! O Life!
by Walt Whitman
1O ME! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;
2Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;
3Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more
4 faithless?)
5Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever
6 renew’d;
7Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;
8Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;
9The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“O Me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman — quilloak.com/poems/o-me-o-life
Quick facts
- Poem
- O Me! O Life!
- Poet
- Walt Whitman
- Length
- 12 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Life
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 12 lines · 2 stanzas of 3–9 lines
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Walt Whitman1819–1892
- Source record
- PoetryDBO Me! O Life! by walt-whitman, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 289bc7ba9c33ebe1…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.