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.
he first ten lines of the poem have been changed from free verse to a rhyming structure of lines shorter length than the original. These lines are the introduction to the flowing poem describing Whitman's transcendental and all-encompassing state of mind and being, and their interpretation will influence the way we read the rest of the poem. By altering the structure of the lines themselves, the style to which we are introduced also changes, in this case causing us to expect heavy use irregular meter, rhyme and fragmented sentences. No additional punctuation has been added; it did not seem necessary since the break between two lines usually demands a slight pause in reading.A clear pattern of repetition is evident, once resulting in internal rhyme, now creating more clear patterns. Altering the line lengths to bring out these rhymes helps us to understand why the language appears to flow so smoothly - just as with alliteration or assonance, the repetition of whole words can sound quite poetic. The original lines containing caesuras, such as "I celebrate myself, || and sing myself," (1) and "And what I assume || you shall assume," (2) making the transition to the new structure natural. Other lines, such as the original line 3, do not follow such a pattern easily, causing unnatural pauses in awkward portions of the sentence. The intention of Whitman placing repetitive words in single lines may indeed have had something to do with internal rhyme, but it appears more likely that he wished to achieve a sense of flowing language - lines that could allow the tongue to "loaf" as he did.
The change in the lines has also shifted the focus of the poetry away from the subject at hand, once emphasized by the repeating "I" beginning original lines 1, 4, 5, and 8 (and also supported by "My", line 6). Whitman has clearly set the scene around his person, with 50 percent of the lines pointing directly at himself. In the new structure, this ratio has now changed to merely 6 of 21 lines. In this instance, the purpose of the poet seems to have been averted by the changing structure, affecting our first impressions of the poem improperly.
Generally, the new structure of the lines is choppier, rhymed only for rhyme's sake, and probably more difficult to understand as poetry. This is a poem best left to free verse, where it can flow unrestrained by conventions, avoiding the misinterpretation due to misplaced metrics.