Song of Myself

One main theme in Walt Whitman’s poem Song of Myself might be pleasure. Throughout the poem, the speaker appears to constantly experience delight, rapture, or pleasure. Early on in the poem, the...

From the first line, Walt Whitman makes it clear that he plans to celebrate himself in his poem. The introductory section also evokes the classic invocation of the muse found in epic poems such as...

With section 52, Whitman ends his long poem Song of Myself—a poem that seems to encompass both eons and universes. How can such a poem end? Only with the same exuberant flourish that has sustained...

The significance of Grass, in American poet Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, as part of his epic work “Leaves of Grass” is that a single blade of grass represents an individual in society. The man...

In Section 6 of "Song of Myself" Whitman uses the imagery of grass to explore the theme of death and rebirth. The child asks the speaker what seems like a fairly simple question: "What is grass?"...

Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes. In this first example of a metaphor, the "perfumes" represent memories. Indeed, it is often said that the sense of...

A lover of humanity, Walt Whitman feels that he is a part of everyone else as well as a part of Nature. So, when he writes "I celebrate myself," Whitman implies that he celebrates all mankind. Much...

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. (1332-3) Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is wild poem reveling in the exploration of the...

In part 6 of "Song of Myself," Whitman portrays death as just another step on the journey of our lives; it is a continuation rather than an end. He asks what we think has become of the people who...

Discussing individualism in Song of Myself can be tricky. While the title would suggest this an autobiographical work about Whitman—and on one level it is—the "I" of the poem is, nevertheless, most...

As a Transcendentalist writer, Walt Whitman believed in the idea (akin to the Unitarian belief today) that God, nature, and humans are all connected. "Song of Myself," as a long poem comprised of...

Many elements of Romanticism appear in Whitman's poem. Romantics celebrated nature as a spiritual force, exalted the common person, wrote in everyday language, and wanted to express deep emotion...

This poem is a bit odd in that the speaker of the poem is Walt Whitman. Section 24 has Whitman name dropping himself, so the speaker is Whitman or the persona that Whitman is creating for himself...

The free-verse poem "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman is considered one of the greatest works of American literature. It was first published in 1855 as part of Whitman's collection Leaves of Grass....

In Part 16 of "Song of Myself," Walt Whitman lists a number of paradoxes. All of them can be used to illuminate Whitman's thematic concerns, which are part and parcel of Whitman's...

Whitman's observation that the grass may be "the flag of my disposition" is given in response to a child asking him what grass is. He freely observes that he does "not know what it is any more than...

Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is an interesting work because it was completed over such a long period of time and revised based on Whitman's changes in life, experience, and thinking, though the...

This passage from the second stanza of "Song of Myself" introduces a vitally important theme in this incredible poem, in which the speaker urges his audience to not accept experience that has...

Whitman talks about the great extent of his imagination: "I skirt sierras, my palms cover continents, I am afoot with my vision." Lots of power exists within this imagination. It seems to have...

A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of...

Whitman draws on the tradition of epic poetry, beginning with a declaration in which he seems to depict himself as his own muse (the poem is called the "song of myself," after all) rather than...

Another aspect of sentence fluency that can create a gentle or peaceful cadence is consonance. Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds within words. Take a look at the first stanza of the...

In this section, Whitman expresses a unity and comraderie with everyone else on the planet; he feels connected to them, at one with them, and as much a part of them as they are of him. He...

Walt Whitman talks about the atoms that make up his tongue and his blood coming from the soil because they literally do. It's comparable to the more modern quote by astronomer and astrophysicist...

In Whitman's "Song of Myself," one should know each of the devices listed so as to rule out the incorrect answers, especially if choices seem similar, or a response does not immediately come to...

This section of Whitman's poem is filled with sensory writing; imagery is the most predominant poetic technique found throughout. Many of the visual images are those of nature: "Where the panther...

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...

In Section 31-33 of Leaves of Grass, Whitman's rambling lines resonate the vitality of a world of nature and man that is unconfined. With the use of his senses, this poet becomes confirmed in the...

In Section 10 of Song of Myself, there is the idea of acceptance of all that the poet observes in nature and those who live in accompaniment with him. There is no moral judgment placed upon those...

"Song of Myself" captures numerous qualities that we find in realist literature:Verisimilitude: Realist writers want to present as close a portrait of truth as is possible. Whitman takes this one...

The last line of this section refers to "nature without check with original energy." If you are familiar with other American poets of the nineteenth century, you may recognize this trend toward a...

The short answer to this question would be to say Whitman's theme is himself, but the trouble begins when we consider what "himself" might mean. To put it another way, the poem is about the...

In Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself," there are many aspects to ponder, but the one that strikes me is that of universality. Whitman notes that he is one with nature, one with all the men and women...

In 52, Whitman says, "I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable," echoing the idea from 51, that he contains "multitudes" and even "contradicts" himself. In the coda, Whitman revisits the...

Part 11 of this poem concerns a "lonesome" woman who is, at twenty-eight years of age, the owner of a "fine house" which overlooks the shore where twenty-eight young men are bathing. The woman's...

The encounter with the runaway works to show that the narrator identifies with this man just as he earlier identified with nature, with the clam-diggers and with the marriage party. The "self" in...

You are referring to the skipper who rescues passengers off the drifting wreck of a steamship. The skipper is portrayed as a courageous hero: I understand the large hearts of heroes,The courage of...

The speaker's attitude in Whitman's famous poem toward nature is that of reverence and adoration. The entirety of the poem is spent cherishing the wonder that nature brings, placing the speaker in...

The first half talks about his travels; he lists different experiences he has had. The first is going out hunting, "wandering amazed at my own lightness and glee" as he does. It is obvious that...

Whitman believes in the essential unity of all things and sees the role of the poet as being to both embody that unity and articulate it. His two main poetic tools for doing this are metaphor, in...

Section 16 starts with contradictions. He states he is one thing, but also the opposite of that thing: "Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man" (l.3). Whitman is saying...

It is important to remember that, in spite of the title of this collection of poems, it is more about America and Whitman's vision of what he would like it to be rather than himself. Whitman...

In the final stanza of this section, Whitman writes that: What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me,Me going in for my chance, spending for vast returns,Adorning myself to bestow myself...

Like the other response states, the almost infinite scenes Whitman describes in section 33 of this poem are not individually significant. However, each is part of a unified whole. Whitman is trying...

It isn't just the problems he can and does connect with, it's all people in all situations. He moves beyond sympathy--feelings for other people--to empathy--sharing the feelings of others. It's...

An examination of the tone of section 7 of Whitman's "Song of Myself" offers the reader a clear way to approach a literary analysis of this part of the poem. In the first stanza of section 7, the...

Whitman's diction is poetic and free. His line that begins "I sound my barbaric yawp" celebrates his own power and freedom and liberates him from both poetic and societal conventions. His poetry is...

Whitman finds an exuberant connection with all of America in this poem. He feels the energy of all the people in the country from the blacksmith to the butcher boy to the negro—and even the team of...

As a follow on to my earlier answer, you can find Whitman concentrating on smell in section 2 of “Song of Myself”: the “houses and rooms” are full of ”perfumes,” but to Whitman the ”atmosphere“ is...

"Song of Myself" is Walt Whitman's exploration of self, other, and what it means to be alive. Throughout the epic poem he addresses concepts that are both commonplace and taboo. Death is one of...