# For Him I Sing explained — Leaves of Grass

> Chapter companion for Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

## What happens

The chapter celebrates the individual who embodies the fusion of past and present, time and space, and the immortal laws, becoming a law unto himself.

## Themes in this chapter

### Individuality and Self

The chapter emphasizes the individual becoming a law unto himself through the fusion of time, space, and immortal laws.

## Character check-ins

### Narrator

The narrator sings for the central figure, raising the present on the past.

## Key lines

> For him I sing, I raise the present on the past, (As some perennial tree out of its roots, the present on the past,)

I sing for him, building the present upon the foundation of the past, like a tree growing from its roots.

_The singer constructs the present from the past for the subject._

> With time and space I him dilate and fuse the immortal laws, To make himself by them the law unto himself.

I expand him through time and space and merge the eternal laws, so that he becomes his own authority through them.

_The subject is enlarged and unified with immortal laws to achieve self-governance._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se/chapters/for-him-i-sing
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se/chapters