Reoccurring Themes In Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself

I have always found poetry to be difficult to read, so it took me awhile to get through and really understand “Song Of Myself”. It seemed to jump around and talk about a lot of different things, making it hard for me to really understand everything that was going on. I had to reread several of the sections to really understand what Whitman was writing. I found it interesting how he mentioned himself in the poem and how he talked about his soul in a way that made it seem like it wasn’t actually part of him. Whitman includes a lot about the earth and nature. In section 6 he talks about the leaves of grass and everything that it might symbolize, but what is the point of including anything about the grass?

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

Also included in the poem is the image of a young child being embraced by their elders. This shows the gap in life and the aging process that we go through. When we are young we are carefree, but as we age we hold on to the ones we love because of the knowledge that we will one day have to make our departure. Out of this idea of death, Whitman shows that this is a natural part of life and

Kurtis Bowen Mrs. Waldvogel American Literature 8 February, 2016 Song of Myself: 46 In section 46 of “Song of Myself” Whitman uses many literary devices to strengthen his theme that every person has his or her own path to follow. Whitman’s use of literary devices includes parallelism, diction, and metaphor. Whitman uses parallelism to strengthen the theme in many places.

Imagery is present throughout Walt Whitman’s Song Of Myself (-----). Whitman is able to draw the reader into the text and ground the abstract ideas back to the readers by appealing to a range of senses. Whitman also uses visual, tactile, auditory and olfactory to imagery give a sense of reality to the setting.

Whitman shed light on to the purpose of his piece. By incorporating “him or her” addresses all readers, including all of society. Similar lack of discrimination is expressed in the second stanza. Similar lack of discrimination is expressed in the second stanza, In this moment, the young child, the reader, and society becomes “the barefoot negro boy and girl.” Through the timeless and circular journey, creates a bond between civilization and nature. As time progresses forward, the future will be influenced by past, seemingly insignificant people,

In his first edition of the poem, “Song of Myself”, Whitman’s poem takes a bold move when it strictly focuses on the glorification of himself. Whitman’s use of arrogant diction helps convey a condescending tone that suggests the speaker is superior to others. However, this egotistical belief is complicated in his poem when his use of inclusive diction invokes a friendly welcoming environment. Through his Speaker, Whitman uses these shifts of diction to present contradictions which allow the reader to encounter multiple emotions. At the same time, his use of free verse structure invokes a sense of unpredictability that literally allows the reader to encounter the multiplicity of everyday experiences in life. Hence, the text promotes

Whitman’s poems disclose that society’s interest in achieving equality molds an individual’s identity. The nature or the foundation of society is the creation of a group of people with their identities syncretized. Whitman concludes that “every atom belonging to [him] as good belongs to you”(Whitman 1.3). It identifies that every human is fundamentally the same by stating that everyone has what he have and no one is superior because the matter that created them is the same. The use of the word “atom” exhibits the very foundation of living beings which strengthen the connection between people to people due to their similarities.

Whitman begins by creating a contradictory image of himself. On one hand he relays an egotistical representation by alluding that he is the center of the universe, "a kosmos, of Manhattan the son," almost a deistic type of character. Whitman also describes himself as not being above any one person, woman or man, an obvious contradiction to his previous representation. His God-like persona is depicted in human terms, physical qualities that all humans possess. Whitman creates this contradiction to show his belief that he is everything, but is only this way because everything is a part of him. He represents himself as part of a whole&emdash;nature, mankind, and the universe are all a part of him. By being everything in nature and nature being a part of him, Whitman has the power to become the voice of nature as a whole. He speaks for nature and mankind when they do not possess the power to do so. Whitman is the voice of all.

The dominant themes that are more pervasive in Whitman’s poetry are democracy, life/death cycles, individualism, and nature. These themes play major roles in some of his more notable poems such as “Songs of Myself” or “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” He used democracy as a theme to bring society together, and unite everyone based on their general beliefs. He depicted life and death cycles to merge society together on a spiritual level. Despite his eagerness to unite society he also embraced individualism, and is also a persistent theme in most of his poetry. Nature was an important concept that Whitman used to convince people who there were more important things to life than class structure. He used nature connect us all, and encourage people to

On this verse, we can see how Whitman tries to connect to mind, body, spirit and nature. In “Song of Myself” Whitman attempted to change the meaning of American poetry. I described identity issues that pertain to him, but that the audience was able to identify with. Whitman, opened the door to

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.