January 20th, 2012 It’s Only Natural: Racial and Gender Equality in Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” In the opening line of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” it becomes immediately evident that his song is not about himself, but about the entire human race: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, / for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you”. His poem extols the mundane aspects of everyday life that a traditional poet of his day would not have considered
chemical also released during sex and eating. In his gutsy poem to America, Song of Myself, Walt Whitman uses repetition to make music that will bring pleasure to his readers and also shape how they perceive the world. Whitman begins his poem by boldly stating that he celebrates himself. Like the chorus to a song he repeats the word “I” throughout the entirety of the poem. The meaning of the word transitions from “I” being Whitman himself, to the people reading his book, and then ending with the reader
Both “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman and “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg are important pieces of American poetry. “Song of Myself” was written in the 1850’s and “Howl” was written about a century later. Both poets were part of groups that wanted to change America – the Transcendentalists and the Beats. Transcendentalists believed in the goodness of people and nature. They believe that people are at their best when they are truly independent. The Beats rejected standard values and materialism. They experimented
self-wisdom, discovery and betterment – is the ground-breaking poet, Walt Whitman. In his poetry, Whitman explores the surreal and cosmic, relating the supernatural to the mundane .With an emphasis on oneness with nature, Whitman’s celebratory attitude of the human soul in all of its complexity, beauty, and contradictions is most noted in his extensive poem titled “Song of Myself”, and is developed further in his poem “Kosmos”. Moreover, Whitman pioneers the future of modern poetry while incorporating his
ultimate threat to the United States at the time, Whitman wished to mend America's social and political demands through his poetry. Throughout Whitman’s works, the reader can evidently observe the widths and basis of his social and political philosophy and the layers of various circumstances that exist within his American culture – which is an essential part of his democratic vision. Many of Whitman's poems, including major works such as "Song of Myself," can be studied with this tidbit, but yet these
Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” Walt Whitman was an American poet born in May 31, 1819 in New York, and he died in March 26, 1892 in New Jersey. He grew up going to school in separate facilities from people of color, so he was growing up along with the nation. He was self-taught by exploring things for himself, for example, going to the museums when he could. Whitman as a young boy alternated from being in the city to being in the countryside with his grandparents. He was exposed to be being
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
Walt Whitman has neither related his biography nor glorified himself in the poem as the title suggests. Infact, the apparent indication of the title is here of no importance. The poem is the song of celebration of every object of nature in general where a question put to the poet by a little child triggers off a philosophical trend of thought relating to death and the meaning of death. In the poem, he has celebrated his own idea (that nothing collapses due to death but instead life moves on) and
a Poem Using the Same Ideas from Another Person The idea that the artist is a single individual coming to stand and speak for the masses is one of Emerson’s main transcendentalist ideas. Walt Whitman met Emerson’s ideal artist description as he spoke as one man for the multitude in his poem, “Song of Myself”, which openly demonstrates Whitman’s faith in the imperative indivisibility of self-reliance. He shares many of the same ideas as Emerson, such as the importance of the self and views on religion
The prevalence of Hegelianism in Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is indisputable, yet a consensus on the meaning remains elusive, and therefore, insidious to the democratic progress Whitman attempts. Whitman uses Hegel to support his ideas about the dialectical theory of consciousness, the spiritualization and importance of art, and America’s manifest destiny. I later elucidate on these categories and break them down into more precise ideas. I use a variety of scholars for evidence of structural