In 1996, American poet Hayden Carruth published his poem “I, I, I” in his collection, Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey: Poems 1991–1995. At that time, Carruth was already an established and popular poet who had published many collections of poetry since 1959. While he is viewed as a proponent of twentieth-century modernism, he defies categorization and, indeed, has consciously resisted it. In his poetry, Carruth moves easily between free verse and verse written in rhyme and meter.

Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey: Poems 1991–1996 was generally well received by critics and won a National Book Award in poetry for the poet in the year 1996. “I, I, I” is written in non-rhyming free verse. Thematically, the poem is a poetic version of the bildungsroman (a novel dealing with the development or coming-of-age of a young protagonist). It raises and, to some extent answers, questions about self-identity through a memorable boyhood experience of the speaker. The poet’s treatment of the experience is highly personal but shows the influence of existentialism and Eastern mysticism. The poem appears to be autobiographical, in that it is written in the first person and the speaker’s physical appearance matches that of Carruth himself.