Understanding Walt Whitman

Lately, I've been doing lots of reading and trying to understand poetry better so while I was at Books a Million with my mom, she told me she would let me pick out a book and she would buy it so I was really happy about that. I decided to get Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and I don't think I could've made a better decision. So for the passed month or so I have been doing lots of reading. The poems in Leaves of Grass are really interesting and well written. My favorites so far are Song of Myself, Song of the Open Road, and Perfections. Song of Myself really speaks to me because it's about doing things for yourself, and understanding other people's point of views. One of my favorite lines goes like this:
"I exist as I am, that is enough.
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content."

Meaning I don't care if anyone acknowledges me and I don't care if my existence means anything to anyone else, because I'm not seeking approval from anyone. I have filled up tons of pages in my inspiration journal with quotes and poetry by Walt Whitman. Song of the Open Road is another one of my favorites, but like Song of Myself, it is a very long poem with way too many lines to recite right now. So I will just recite one line that meant something to me.

The north and the south are mine, the east and the west are mine. 
And to me, this means that when I'm driving, I can go anywhere I choose. Every direction of the open road is mine. I don't know if that line is 100% correctly quoted, because I don't have my copy of Leaves of Grass with me right now, so I'm trying to only go by my memory. I have highlighted all of my favorite lines in the book that I've read so far and I wish I could write them all down on my blog but I don't feel like going to get it out of my car right now.

Unlike Song of Myself and Song of the Open Road, Walt Whitman's poem Perfections is very short. In fact, it's only 2 lines long, so I can recite it really easily. It goes like this...
"Only themselves understand themselves and the likes of themselves,
As souls only understand souls."
And I just really liked this one because it seems fitting to say that souls only understand souls. People really don't understand each other the way we should. We only understand our own perspectives and our own reasons for doing things.