My Favorite Walt Whitman Poem

I Saw In Louisiana A Live-Oak Growing 
By: Walt Whitman 


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, its lover near--for I knew I could not; 
And 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 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, solitary, in a wide
flat space, 
Uttering joyous leaves all its life, without a friend, a lover, near, 
I know very well I could not. 


I like this poem because it is easier to understand. Also I think that he is talking about how he doesn't get how people could go through life without someone to lean on.