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Section 50 Summary

Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.

  • OK, we're nearing the end, folks.
  • There is something important within the speaker. To repeat the last line of Section 49, it is something "steady and central."
  • Whitman might be describing his own death here. His body becomes cool and he sleeps a long time.
  • The world hangs or "swings" on some central mystery, and the speaker finds reassurance in this feeling.
  • There is not ultimate death or chaos in the universe. The universe has a form and all life is connected. Ultimately, there is happiness in the union of all things.
  • It's as if the speaker is getting in touch with mysticism in this section.