Walt Whitman wrote “Song of Myself” in free verse, an open form which does not adhere to any formal rhythm or metrical scheme. While some of Whitman’s other (and more popular) poems did use more rigid forms, like “O Captain! My Captain!”, Whitman is now most famous for his innovations in free verse. As M. Jimmie Killingsworth writes, Whitman “all but invented free verse in English, introducing breathlessly long lines and using repetitions of words and sounds to create a web-like form to replace the conventional meters used by even the most experienced poets before him.” (Killingsworth, M. “Poetry Before the Civil War.” The Cambridge Introduction to Walt Whitman, 2007, page 24.)

The ever-shifting nature of free verse suits Whitman’s thematic emphasis on the inevitability of change, the dominance of the present and the now. Its flexibility also allows the poem to transform as easily and radically as Whitman’s conception of self. He casually alters line lengths, for example, in the same way that he casually widens and restricts the boundaries of his person.

Free verse also allows Whitman’s poetry to read like a spontaneous flow of thought. Many sections feel more like a casual conversation than a formal work of literature.