Apart from pulling and hauling stands what I am, / Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary, / Looks down, is erect, bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest, / Looks with its sidecurved head curious what will come next, / Both in and out of the game, watching and wondering at it. / Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders, / I have no mockings or arguments....I witness and wait.
Importance
This is the end of the fifth part of "Song of Myself" and acts as a conclusion to Whitman's discussions on his fleeting youth. Previously, Whitman talks about the acceleration of culture when he mentions "the latest news....discoveries, inventions, societies....authors old and new." Because he talks about these things in despairing tone, he is showing his dismay with the passing of time and the aging of his body and mind. By ending the section with this stanza, he shows his desire to return to a time of innocence.
Analysis
Whitman refers to himself as a "what" in the first line, and uses the third person to describe himself in the lines after that. This shows detachment to his current state of being and a desire to think of himself only as a young man with a world of opportunities in front of him. He mentions looking backwards into his life, and that is, presumably, when he was happier. Although he made some mistakes (because they may deserve "mockings" by his current self), he still looks at that time in his life with a sense of nostalgia and happiness. Now, he is standing in the middle of the road and looks forward, curious for the upcoming experiences in his life. This curiosity is stated before he looks backward, so that shows his resistance to the passing of time yet he faces it with a consciousness of inevitability. He can delay all he wants (he is "idle"), but the future will come and he cannot rely on his complacency to progress.
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