Sound words of advice.

Whitman is saying that everything that already is (meaning all the things that have been created {this could be either form a philosophical stand point meaning all ideas have been thought up or from a scientific stand point meaning quite literally that nothing can ever be created or destroyed; only changed}) are the things that always will be. New things will not be created. Everything that has existed, has always existed and will always exist.

The old phrase “history repeats itself” can be applied to what Whitman is saying. As time goes on, things are not going to become better or worse, people will not become wholly different people, and the good and bad things in the world will not become more or less plentiful. Things will change but not in their amount or in their true nature.

The moral to draw from this quatrain is that waiting for things to get better or waiting for better things to come along is a foolish way to live life. Waiting for things to come to fruition is foolish because all things already are. Whitman is saying that you should seek out the things you need, be proactive in your personal betterment rather than waiting for time to improve things.

This is sampled from the song Gotta Get Up by Harry Nilsson which was the first song on his Nilsson Schmilsson album. In the original song, Harry is talking about how he spent all night out drinking and partying and he’s saying that he has to get home before morning so he can at least get a little bit of sleep because he has things to do in the morning. This is the general theme of Ashers song, too much partying and he needs to get back to his responsibilities.

Richard Scarry is an author most well known for his children’s books. His most well known book series was called Busytown. Busytown was set up as personified animals who were living every day lives.
The reference that Asher is making is about The Busy World of Richard Scarry which was an animated kids series based on the book series.