So last night I jumped over to Zen Pencils to see about picking up a small print of the wonderful Tyson and Sagan illustrations. While browsing through the shop I noticed a few quotes I’d missed or maybe read over. One of them happened to be a comic set to O Me! O Life! by Walt Whitman.

Now I’m not, and never have been, a poetry person, my preference always being prose; however, I have a soft-spot for Whitman specifically because of this poem. Illustration Here, poem at the bottom.

O Me! O Life! is by far and wide margins my favorite poem, and one of my favorite works of art in general. And it’s really cool to stumble across an illustration that seems to go with it so well, including and especially the last few panel sets (Spoiler Alert, the image below may be a spoiler, I guess).

Walt Whitman – Zen Pencils – Click for Full Comic

Incidentally, if you haven’t ever been to Zen Pencils GO NOW! Browse his work, and maybe pick up a print. They’re definitely awesome, and this level of awesomeness needs to be encouraged.

O ME! O life!… of the questions of these recurring;

Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;

Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;

Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here—that life exists, and identity;

That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.