Song of the Open Road Community Quotes

The great companions—complete with all caps—sounds like a pretty cool community to belong to, if you ask us. We didn't list them all here, but the poem itself goes on for another dozen plus lines to tell you just who's included in this community. The short version? Lots of folks are, from every walk of life. The open road gives the speaker access to a diverse community.

"Allons!" is French for "Let's get going!" This poem busts out this expression to start out nearly every one of the last nine sections. It reminds us that there's another kind of community at work here: the one that includes both Whitman and his readers. Through his speaker, he's encouraging all of us to head out onto the open road and encounter the same kind of community he describes in his poem.