Analysis Of ' Song Of Myself ' By Walt Whitman

"Why should I pray? Why should I venerate and be ceremonious?……I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones." (pg 40)Nature and all of her wondrous facets, especially the human body, was Whitman's religion. Walt Whitman was indeed an intensely spiritual man in his own unconventional way. His epic classic "Song of Myself" demonstrates these attitudes of his, and in his view how the proverbial "poet" of his America should believe. Humanity yearns for spiritual fulfillment and Whitman believed that everything around us and even ourselves were walking testaments to what true ethereal life is.

In “Song of Myself” Whitman attempts to speak on behalf of the entire American population. He tries to pull the reader into a world of many possibilities. Whitman makes a

    From looking at the titles of Walt Whitman's vast collection of poetry in Leaves of Grass one would be able to surmise that the great American poet wrote about many subjects -- expressing his ideas and thoughts about everything from religion to Abraham Lincoln. Quite the opposite is true, Walt Whitman wrote only about a single subject which was so powerful in the mind of the poet that it consumed him to the point that whatever he wrote echoed of that subject. The beliefs and tenets of transcendentalism were the subjects that caused Whitman to write and carried through not only in the wording and imagery of his poems, but also in the revolutionary way that he chose to write his poetry.

Walt Whitman explores individualism by looking through all of the diversity within America and identifying that people are different and have come from many different backgrounds. However, we are all one in the same due to the connection of being American. He does this because he wants to maintain his individual “self-hood” while finding a place within America, a happy medium. The role of the individual in this piece of work Whitman states is “one of the Nation of many Nations, the smallest the same and the largest the same,” which means everyone has a different background and have all come from many places far away, but are still apart of America nonetheless. This is what brings us together. In the opening section of Song of Myself Whitman starts by saying all human beings are the same, “And what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” I believe this is Whitman’s attempt at trying to merge his own self into society, while maintaining his “self-hood.”

Transcendentalism focuses on the concept of nonconformity/individualism and the denouncement of evil with themes of nature intertwined these concepts. Whitman was a pioneer of transcendentalism and strongly believed in the self as a spiritual being. His poems centered around the idea that one had to spend life discovering the self, only depending on the self. Thoreau learned from Whitman and applied these concepts.

In one of the sections from the poem, “Song of Myself” Walt Whitman starts out with a child asking a question, “What is the grass?” Grass is a symbol of life. God, who created both the heavens and the earth also gave birth to life. When Whitman refers to grass as a “handkerchief of the Lord” (7), as a gift. When people look at the grass, they do not think of it as a creation but rather just a plant. Whitman refers to the grass as “a child, the produced babe of vegetation” (11, 12). Here, the grass is a metaphor for the birth of a child. In often cases, the birth of anything is celebrated because it symbolizes a new life, a new beginning.

Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is a vision of the American spirit, a vision of Whitman himself. It is his cry for democracy, giving each of us a voice through his poetry. Each of us has a voice and desires, and this is Whitman's representation of our voices, the voice of America. America, the great melting pot, was founded for freedom and democracy, and this poem is his way of re-instilling these lost American ideals. In this passage from "Song of Myself" Whitman speaks through his fellow man and speaks for his fellow man when his voice is not socially acceptable to be heard.

During a lecture in 1907, William James said "the philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly means. It is only partly got from books; it is our individual way of just seeing and feeling the total push and pressure of the cosmos" (Bartlett 546) Individuality has been a prevalent theme in every type of literature for quite some time. Whether it is a character discovering his/her individuality or the author expressing his, literature is full of distinctness. The term individuality changes meaning with each person it meets. That is what makes the dynamic word so great. Throughout particular works read this

Every sentence in Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" tends to either repeat or contradict. He even says of himself, "I contradict myself" (Lauter, p. 2793). This can make Whitman's poetry a little confusing to some. In his many stanzas, definition of the soul is ambiguous and somewhat contradictory.

In the poem “Song of Myself” Whitman presents the idea that regardless of particular religion, a higher power resides within every living thing and that the knowledge of ourselves and the living things around us gives us a transcendent power beyond our world. On the “Song of Myself” poem Whitman presents the believe that every living organism in the universe possesses a spirit. Additionally, Whitman acknowledges the need for a spiritual relationship between a person and a higher spiritual power. For Whitman, life was and endless journey. The following quote captures some of the Transcendental elements used by Walt Whitman on the “Song of Myself”

In his first anthology of poems entitled “Song of Myself”, Walt Whitman reveals some of his views on democracy through the use of symbolism and free verse poetry. His use of symbolism and free verse poetry creates indeterminacy, giving the reader hints rather than answers about the nature of the poem. In the sixth part of “Song of Myself”, a child asks the narrator of the poem, “What is the grass?” (Whitman). Instead of simply giving an answer, the narrator cannot make up his mind, and stumbles on how to explain the grass to the child. Through the use of specific symbolisms, Whitman, as the narrator, explicates his views while remaining under the façade of explaining grass to the child. The views Whitman conveys remain indeterminate and

Walt Whitman, a civil war nurse was a self-taught poet in the 1800s. Whitman is known for using lists, anaphora, free verse, and other literary devices in his poems. In his works, he focuses on American workers, diversity, transcendent approaches to nature, and individualism. “Song of Myself,” a poem written by Whitman, explores themes of nature, sex, democracy, and spirituality. Whitman uses nature to fuel his creativity in using grass as a symbol of comparison to life by using imagery, metaphors, and analogies.

Title- The song of myself sounds like a poem of self expression, and a gospel of Walt Whitman's’ self beliefs. When his optimistic outlook on life is brought into perspective, one could also conclude that the poem was about his positive and radical outlook on life, because it is a song of himself, his personal expression.

Song of Myself by Walt Whitman. In this poem, the speaker Walt Whitman talks about his connection to nature and how everything is connected to nature. He speaks as if what he says is a new or unheard language. Mr. Whitman believe that he is not tamed from himself and that he has transcended the notion. By that he means he have created a new language that is foreign to others since they have never heard of it. Around this time many poets were becoming more expressive and open. Walt Whitman motivated many artists that would have been considered “weird” during the time to become more open.

In Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, the poet showcases his feelings of people and himself by using literary descriptors to convey his thoughts on these and various other subjects. In section 20, Whitman’s purpose is to showcase self-assuredness regardless of what the world tries to state otherwise by maintaining his resolute happiness in being himself. This is what sets him apart from being like the other people in the world.