Theme Of Song Of Myself By Walt Whitman

A little child questions the poet, "What is grass?" that sets his mind wondering when he has nor ready answer for the child's question and is unable to answer it. He muses that perhaps

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

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.”

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.

Walt Whitman was one of the greatest poets in American literature. In his works he celebrated the freedom of the individual and the spirit of American democracy. He exalted the common man, the immigrant, the laborer, and the pioneer, he made the occupations of everyday life a subject of native American poetry. His truly original work , Leaves of Grass, was a landmark in both content and style.

Walt Whitman had a way of reaching out to all people as if speaking directly to them. He accomplishes this by displaying love and adoration for himself, for others, and for his nation. Whitman believed in the union of each individuals own mind, body, and soul. He also believed in the union of the individual with others and the union of the individual with all living things in the universe. In Song of Myself individualism is an extensive theme throughout the work. “Immortality in Whitman’s Philosophy and Art” makes the statement “His poetry sought to present the highest form of American ideals, purified of the strife that was dividing the American community” (Devardhi and Deepika). The American dream of democracy resonates throughout Whitman’s writings in conjunction with his belief that all life of every race, religion, or sex are equal. In Song of Myself section 24, Whitman is expressing his belief in self-divinity and self-love “through me the afflatus surging and surging through me the current and index.” Later in the same section Whitman makes another reference to the divinity of the

In Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, the speaker often uses “I” as a way to embody individuals, or “adjuncts,” of society and the whole that they comprise. At other times, the use of “I” appears to refer to the singular speaker, occasionally seeming to contradict its more encompassing voice. Two particular passages from this selection of poems employ parenthetical statements that work both to differentiate between which “I” is speaking, as well as to whom he is directing his words. This manipulation of punctuation is most notable in poems 7 and 51, the first of which the speaker informs the audience of the immortality of all people, while the latter expresses the brief nature of the speaker’s time with the reader and addresses potential contradictory

Alyssa Di Mauro Unit 3 Paper The writing I chose to analyze is Song of Myself by Walt Whitman. This poem, considered an American epic, is so long and packed full of a variety of topics, to sum it up in its entirety would be taxing. For the purposes of this paper, I am focusing on only the parts of the poem which are commonly discussed in terms of literary elements.

In these three lines, Whitman references Egyptian, Greek, and Hindu gods. The reason he names all of these gods is because he is trying to disconnect from idols of the worlds and connect with the worlds religious figures. This poem covered all aspects of life, death, government, and society. “Song of Myelf” was published in Walts first book, Leaves of Grass. Published in 1855, America was divided over multiple issues and Walt felt that the only way to unite the two sides was through

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

Walt Whitman is known as Americas greatest poet; however, this took some time. Whitman is considered the father of free verse poetry (Reynolds). The free verse was not accepted among the people very well, the people had no idea how to accept it for what it was. Whitman’s greatest work is a collection of poems and stories called “Leaves of Grass”, which Whitman published his first copy in 1855. Whitman’s collection of “Leaves of Grass” is Walt’s songs about himself, America, the American people, religion, intimacy, and death. Whitman described “Leaves of Grass” as an autobiography, saying it is “an attempt from first to last, to put a Person, a human being (myself, in the latter

From the first stanza of "Song of Myself" we see that Whitman loves nature and loves being in unison with nature. In fact, Whitman believes all creatures are a part of nature and that all atoms intertwined and all parts make the whole that makes up our universe. Anything that interconnected is energizing, revitalizing, and serves to jazz you up on a daily basis. Whitman is a poets who expresses and conforms to the idea that no matter how down on yourself that you're feeling or how bad your day has been going, you can just walk outside in nature and become one with it. Nature, to Whitman is like prescribed medicine given from a doctor.

In “Story of Myself” from the book Leaves of Grass written by Walt Whitman expresses that each person is an individual and unique.The poet states “For every belonging to me as good belongs to you”(ll.3). He is stating that each person is an individual, he’s implying that each person matters.By saying that, he’s enabling that each person is important and is very demonstrative of how he feels.Whitman also states “..And what do you think has become of the women and children?/ They are alive and well somewhere” (ll. 39-40).This says that each person out there has a life of their own and matters.He states this to show that although he may not know of other people out in the world they are valuable and out there. Although, not stated in the first

Nature has a captivating component to it, somehow enabling human life to relate to it. Walt Whitman, an American poet writes fascinating poems that can be interpreted simply about nature, yet have an underlying connection to transcendentalism and human feelings. Transcendentalism is connected to his works in a sense that while he evidently talks about nature, the reader is able to connect to each stanza of his, and interpret them to their own life. Whitman’s poem, Songs of Myself is written with a profound, emotional craft, using poetic devices, open to unique interpretations.

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.