What Am I After All


  What am I after all but a child, pleas'd with the sound of my own
      name? repeating it over and over;
  I stand apart to hear—it never tires me.

  To you your name also;
  Did you think there was nothing but two or three pronunciations in
      the sound of your name?
by Walt Whitman
Written around 1891. 38 reads.