Wedding reading
from Song of the Open Road
Walt Whitman
“from Song of the Open Road” by Walt Whitman is a poem read at a wedding ceremony. It takes about 25 seconds read aloud, usually by a guest reader. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
Camerado, I give you my hand! I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
What it is about
Twenty-five seconds, and it ends on a question the couple answer with the vows.
Read at a wedding ceremony. Themes: travelling together · a question rather than a promise · short · informal · an outdoor wedding.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “from Song of the Open Road” take to read aloud?
“from Song of the Open Road” takes about 25 seconds read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “from Song of the Open Road”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “from Song of the Open Road” runs about 25 seconds, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.
Can “from Song of the Open Road” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — and the timing that holds them together. Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole ceremony, written out, with this reading in its place.