Song of Myself
Song of Myself,poem by Whitman, the untitled introduction to the first edition of Leaves of Grass (1855), later called A Poem of Walt Whitman, An American and Walt Whitman, and given its present title in 1881.
Declaring “I celebrate myself …Walt Whitman, a kosmos,” the poet sets forth two principal beliefs: the first, a theory of universality (“of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion”), is illustrated by lengthy catalogues of people and things; the second is that all things are equal in value (“I am the poet of the Body and …of the Soul …not the poet of goodness only, …of wickedness also…. I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.”). This equalitarian doctrine is based both on the theory of evolution and on a pantheistic belief; at one time Whitman is a mystic, and at another he proclaims, “Hurrah for positive science!,” while yet admitting that facts...
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