I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing
Walt Whitman
Track 59 on Leaves of Grass
I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing Lyrics
I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches,
Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself,
But I wonder'd how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there
without its friend near, for I knew I could not,
And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it and
twined around it a little moss,
And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them,)
Yet it remains to me a curious token, it makes me think of manly love;
For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana
in a wide flat space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend a lover near,
I know very well I could not.
All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches,
Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself,
But I wonder'd how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there
without its friend near, for I knew I could not,
And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it and
twined around it a little moss,
And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them,)
Yet it remains to me a curious token, it makes me think of manly love;
For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana
in a wide flat space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend a lover near,
I know very well I could not.
About
Genius Annotation
Whitman reflects on a live-oak he saw in Louisiana which reminded him of himself, but had a stark difference in that it was able to live its life in solitude.
This poem also reflects on the sexuality of Walt Whitman. That he relates to the longing feelings of the tree surrounded by other species, paralleling his own homosexuality smothered by a heterosexual society.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 7.Eidolons
- 11.Beginners
- 12.To the States
- 15.Me Imperturbe
- 16.Savantism
- 22.Poets to Come
- 24.Thou Reader
- 26.Song of Myself
- 38.Native Moments
- 56.Trickle Drops
- 57.City of Orgies
- 59.I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing
- 60.To a Stranger
- 76.To a Western Boy
- 81.Full of Life Now
- 82.Salut au Monde!
- 87.A Song of Joys
- 96.To You II
- 98.Myself and Mine
- 100.With Antecedents
- 101.A Broadway Pageant
- 104.Tears
- 111.Patroling Barnegat
- 112.After the Sea-Ship
- 116.Gods
- 117.Germs
- 118.Thoughts
- 119.Perfections
- 121.To a President
- 122.I Sit and Look Out
- 123.To Rich Givers
- 128.The Runner
- 129.Beautiful Women
- 130.Mother and Babe
- 131.Thought
- 132.Visor’d
- 133.Thought-II
- 134.Gliding O’er all
- 136.Thought-III
- 137.To Old Age
- 138.Locations and Times
- 139.Offerings
- 142.Eighteen Sixty-One
- 143.Beat! Beat! Drums!
- 147.Virginia—The West
- 148.City of Ships
- 159.Not the Pilot
- 161.The Wound-Dresser
- 170.Race of Veterans
- 174.Reconciliation
- 181.Adieu to a Soldier
- 182.Turn O Libertad
- 189.Reversals
- 190.As Consequent, Etc.
- 193.Old Ireland
- 194.The City Dead-House
- 195.This Compost
- 197.Unnamed Land
- 198.Song of Prudence
- 203.Vocalism
- 206.Laws for Creations
- 209.Thought2
- 212.To a Pupil
- 214.What Am I After All
- 215.Kosmos
- 218.Tests
- 219.The Torch
- 221.The Ox-Tamer
- 222.Wandering at Morn
- 223.With All Thy Gifts
- 224.My Picture-Gallery
- 225.The Prairie States
- 228.Prayer of Columbus
- 230.Transpositions
- 238.Assurances
- 239.Quicksand Years
- 246.Thought-IV
- 247.The Last Invocation
- 251.A Paumanok Picture
- 253.Faces
- 254.The Mystic Trumpeter
- 256.O Magnet-South
- 258.All Is Truth
- 259.A Riddle Song
- 260.Excelsior
- 262.Thoughts-V
- 263.Mediums
- 265.Spain, 1873-74
- 268.Old War-Dreams
- 273.Years of the Modern
- 274.Ashes of Soldiers
- 275.Thoughts VI
- 276.Song at Sunset
- 278.My Legacy
- 280.Camps of Green
- 283.Joy, Shipmate, Joy!
- 285.Portals
- 286.These Carols
- 289.Mannahatta II
- 290.Paumanok
- 291.From Montauk Point
- 294.The Bravest Soldiers
- 295.A Font of Type
- 297.My Canary Bird
- 300.The First Dandelion
- 302.Memories
- 303.To-Day and Thee
- 307.Halcyon Days
- 314.Broadway
- 316.Old Salt Kossabone
- 317.The Dead Tenor
- 319.Yonnondio
- 320.Life
- 321.“Going Somewhere”
- 323.True Conquerors
- 326.Thanks in Old Age
- 327.Life and Death
- 331.The Dying Veteran
- 332.Stronger Lessons
- 333.A Prairie Sunset
- 334.Twenty Years
- 336.Twilight
- 339.The Dead Emperor
- 341.The Dismantled Ship
- 343.An Evening Lull
- 347.Lingering Last Drops
- 350.MY 71st Year
- 351.Apparitions
- 352.The Pallid Wreath
- 353.An Ended Day
- 355.To the Pending Year
- 357.Long, Long Hence
- 359.Interpolation Sounds
- 361.Old Chants
- 362.A Christmas Greeting
- 363.Sounds of the Winter
- 364.A Twilight Song
- 366.Osceola
- 367.A Voice from Death
- 368.A Persian Lesson
- 369.The Commonplace
- 371.Mirages
- 372.L. of G.’s Purport
- 373.The Unexpress’d
- 374.Grand Is the Seen
- 375.Unseen Buds
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