That's the opening stanza from Leaves of Grass, the Ur-text of American poetry. The opening stanza doesn't convey Whitman's break with convention fully, but it

That's the opening stanza from Leaves of Grass, the Ur-text of American poetry. The opening stanza doesn't convey Whitman's break with convention fully, but it stands in for the rest, which does. And certainly these lines -- self-celebratory, all-encompassing, without conventional rhyme or meter -- convey an expression of independence!