Enjoy this folk version excerpted from Walt Whitman’s poem, Song of Myself, where he describes the origin of all poems, all songs, and all books.
Origin of All Songs Lyrics
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loaf and invite my soul,I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil, this air,Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,Hoping to cease not till death.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,Nature without check with original energy.
Have you reckoned a thousand acres much? have you reckoned the earth much?Have you practiced so long to learn to read?Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.
Stop this day and night with meand you shall possess the origin of all songs,You shall possess the good of the earth and sun.
Stop this day and night with meand you shall possess the origin of all songs,You shall possess the good of the earth and sun.
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