Not I Nor Anyone Else Can

From Section 46 of "Song of Myself" in Leaves of Grass, where Whitman shifts from cataloguing the world's wonders to addressing the reader directly about the open road of life. The passage is Whitman's most direct statement of self-reliance in the poem: the poet can be a companion, but cannot substitute for each person's own journey. The sentiment echoes Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" (1841), which deeply influenced Whitman and prompted Emerson's famous letter of praise upon reading the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass.