A strange poem that makes no sense at all if you try to understand it literally, but it’s a poem, and it doesn’t have to make that kind of sense. What it clearly does mean is that Whitman has been on some kind of a journey, and at last it’s almost over. He’s about to head for home again, happy and excited to be going back, but right at the end, the mood changes, and he wonders if all his travelling has really achieved . . . whatever it was he set out to achieve.