A song for the road

The poet Walt Whitman didn’t live to travel by automobile, but he knew a few things about the itch to get out on the “long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.”

He appreciated rhythms of footfall and ferry, hackney and train; the forward motion that opened the eye to fresh vistas and the mind to inspiration.

He didn’t live to experience the radio, either, though he might’ve predicted it: …