Walt Whitman

Here you will find the Poem Who Is Now Reading This? of poet Walt Whitman

Who Is Now Reading This?

May-be one is now reading this who knows some wrong-doing of my past
 life,
 Or may-be a stranger is reading this who has secretly loved me,
 Or may-be one who meets all my grand assumptions and egotisms with
 derision,
 Or may-be one who is puzzled at me.

 As if I were not puzzled at myself!
 Or as if I never deride myself! (O conscience-struck! O self-
 convicted!)
 Or as if I do not secretly love strangers! (O tenderly, a long time,
 and never avow it;)
 Or as if I did not see, perfectly well, interior in myself, the stuff
 of wrong-doing,
 Or as if it could cease transpiring from me until it must cease. 10