WHY! who makes much of a miracle?
As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or sit at table at dinner with my mother,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds—or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or stand a long while looking at the movements of machinery,
Or behold children at their sports,
Or my own eyes and figure in the glass;

Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same;
All these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles.

To me the sea is a continual miracle;
What stranger miracles are there?

Analysis, meaning and summary of Walt Whitman's poem Miracles.


  1. Matt says:

    Hang on, this website says that the poem was written/published in 1900, but Whitman died in 1892. When was the poem actually written?

  2. Reyna says:

    i have been reading a lot of walts work and i find it hard to know if he really means what he is saying in his poem. a lot of his work is expressing his own feelings about things and i have to wonder how he came up with such an optimistic poem considering how big of a change it seems to be from his other work

  3. Jordan says:

    I’m not sure, Is walt whitman himself the persona of this poem?

  4. Holden says:

    When I first read the poem I was confused I mean I got what he meant I just didn’t know how he could find all of those things as miracles, but now that I am reading it again I now know how he sees miracles everywhere.

  5. Amanda says:

    I love this poem. It is so wonderful how Walt Whitman put it together.

  6. Lizzy says:

    To me this poem is about how we take everything for granted. Instead of being thankful for all of these gifts of life we live negatively. To Whitman everything is a miracle and by having this optimistic outlook on life how could anyone have any regrets? We can’t.

  7. Ashley Rude says:

    After reading nearly all of Whitman’s work, Miracles is still my favorite. For me, reading it is humbling.

  8. Mike says:

    What is the style, genre, form, stanza type, and rhyme scheme of the poem?
    What are examples of figurative and sensory language in the poem?

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