Whitman: An Interpretation in Narrative

"You want to know in a word the sum total of my life philosophy as I have tried to live it and as I have tried to put it in my book. I will tell you. It is only the closest student who would find it in my works. ... The sum total of my view of life has always been to humbly accept and thank God for whatever inspiration toward good may come in this rough world of ours and, as far as may be, to cut loose from and put the bad behind always and always." Walt Whitman, I89I.