Walt Whitman celebrates democracy and egalitarianism through the sweeping, inclusive litanies that characterize his poetry and give it rhetorical force. Section 16 in "Song of Myself" is a particularly fine example of this style. The poet begins by identifying himself with a series of opposing groups: the old as well as the young, the foolish as well as the wise. By the third line, he even refuses to be constrained by sex, being "Maternal as well as paternal." Having claimed to be "One of the Nation of many nations," Whitman becomes more specific about the myriad types with whom he identifies. With insistent anaphora emphasizing the point, he claims to be "A Southerner soon as a Northerner," a Kentuckian, a Louisianian, a Georgian, "a Hoosier, Badger, Buckeye," at home with and a comrade of all manner of men and women.

Later, in section 51 of the poem, Whitman is to make his famous claim:

Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself,

(I am large, I contain multitudes.)