Open Road

“Song of the Open Road” is one of Walt Whitman’s long poems.

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

From this first line, it goes on beyond 200 lines.

Why did Whitman say “open” to describe the road?

Are roads essentially open? Roads may be closed sometimes, but closed roads are not roads. The combination of “open” and “road” sounds too natural like red apples, hot coffee or cold winter.

I imagine Whitman’s open road as a place where people become open.

Around the middle of this poem, in line 107, we are rightly charged.

This “we” are strangers on the road. Each one walking on Whitman’s open road becomes open to each other and “I” become “we.”

The Open Road sounds great because it changes “me” into “us.”