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Song of Myself
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Song of Myself
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...
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Song of Myself
In section 2 of "Song of Myself," Whitman is at pains to "belch" words. He wants poetry to become immediate, to "belch" forth, not simply function as a kind of prettified, stale tradition such as...
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Song of Myself
I can think of two sections in “Song of Myself” (1855) where the speaker’s optimism cannot fully answer some of the questions he himself poses. Before we look at the two sections, it’s useful to...
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Song of Myself
In "Song of Myself," Walt Whitman seeks to overcome two traditional beliefs: first, that the body and soul are separate, and second, that the soul is greater than the body. In Christian doctrine,...
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Song of Myself
Whitman's "Song of Myself" and his poetry in general represent an overturning of conventional thought and morality, and of organized religion. To say "I am the poet of the body" is a deliberate...
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Song of Myself
Throughout Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, we find many passages such as this one. While this quotation seems to come specifically from Justin Kaplan's biography of Whitman, it captures the spirit...
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Song of Myself
The central image in section 46 of "Song of Myself" is that of the road—more specifically, a traveler or a tramp making a journey along the road. The speaker says early in the section, I tramp a...
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Song of Myself
Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" fits within the American Romantic movement. As such, it shares the reverence for nature one finds in all Romantics. Like his intellectual hero Emerson, Whitman...
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Song of Myself
"Song of Myself" is a long and complex poem by Walt Whitman. In it, he jumps around and reflects on many aspects of existence, from Nature to humanity, to the meaning of God. There is no specific...
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Song of Myself
Whitman and his American literary brethren arose in response to the hidebound, constrictive, and myopic culture of the Old World. The oppressive weight of the trappings of European culture and its...
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Song of Myself
Please note: The post contains numerous questions. The eNotes Homework Help policy allows for one question per post. This answer addresses the first question. The theme of inclusion and exclusion...
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Song of Myself
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...
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Song of Myself
"I celebrate myself." "Song of Myself" is the best-known and most influential poem of the American author Walt Whitman, first appearing in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. The question asks...
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Song of Myself
Figurative language is language that goes beyond literal words to add extra meaning and beauty to a piece of writing. A famous passage in Whitman's "Song of Myself" shows many examples of his rich...
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Song of Myself
The protagonist of this poem is the poet himself, Walt Whitman. In classic Whitmanic style the protagonist makes forceful use of the first person “I,” portraying himself as a distinct and separate...
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Song of Myself
In fictional analysis, the term climax refers to the highest point of conflict, the term rising action refers to the events that escalate towards that conflict, and the term falling action refers...
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Song of Myself
In Song of Myself, Walt Whitman offers a speaker who is discussing their personal experience as an individual. This individual is sometimes presented as a persona of the author. Whitman does not...
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Song of Myself
This amazing insight from Walt Whitman is an encapsulation of his philosophy – that we are not so much individuals as “leaves of grass”; superficially we appear to be individual, unique beings, but...
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Song of Myself
Whitman compares himself to the hawk, and describes his “Song of Myself” as a “barbaric Yawp” (a meaningless sound, a crying out that only signifies that he is alive, with no “meaning” to his...
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Song of Myself
The poem that begins Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself opens with the line “I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” This poem seems characteristically American in a number of ways, including the...
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Song of Myself
In "Song of Myself", Walt Whitman does not apply to death the qualities of personification that are used by Emily Dickinson in "Because I Could Not Stop for Death". Rather, the poem "Song of...
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Song of Myself
Individualism: Walt Whitman’ “Song of Myself” is highly idiosyncratic and individualistic, expressing a point of view about slavery grounded in the particularistic viewpoint and experiences of the...
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Song of Myself
In this final section of this amazing poem, the speaker sees a hawk, and his response is to feel immensely humbled as he sees elements of himself in the hawk. In particular, the comparison between...
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Song of Myself
There is simply no way to briefly summarize "Song of Myself". The poem is 52 stanza's of sensuality, vocabulary, rapture, and love. The basic principal that Whitman expressed in his...
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Song of Myself
Walt Whitman has a lot of things to say about America and what it means to be American. In his poem "Song of Myself," one of the ways in which he defines what it means to be American is his...
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Song of Myself
Throughout this series of poems, Whitman presents a view of life where humanity enjoys an incredibly close relationship with nature, so close, in fact, that even when he imagines himself dying in...
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Song of Myself
This is a bit of an opinion question, but I will give you some ideas to run with. The entire point of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is to celebrate one's self, and one's individuality. At the...
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Song of Myself
Generally speaking, Walt Whitman's tone in this poem is celebratory and joyous. The guy is definitely happy with his station in life. He's happy to be who he is and he loves the world that he is...
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Song of Myself
There may be no poem that so effectively embodies the concept of "nature poetry" than this one. This well-loved poem was controversial for some time after it was first published, because it...
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Song of Myself
Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" focuses upon Democratic ideals, among which are the value of the individual. Thematic of "Song of Myself" is the expression of the self and the love of nature. In...
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Song of Myself
There are almost countless examples of metaphor in Walt Whitman's long poem, "Song of Myself." Indeed, even if you were to narrow your options down to a single image - the central leaf of grass,...
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Song of Myself
The very nature of the title as one where there is internal reflection and an emphasis on the subjective makes Whitman's work decidedly Romantic. The notion of "myself" being so important a focal...
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Song of Myself
This beautiful passage continues Whitman’s “Song of Myself” as he associates his essence with Nature’s and Civilization’s rhythms, especially concentrating on the sounds of Nature (the sound of a...
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Song of Myself
Whitman analyzes the power of the eyes and the other senses and their ability to behold the majesty of the universe—in this case, the mesmerizing and hypnotic rise of the sun. This example goes to...
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Song of Myself
I think one prominent truth that is established in section one (and carried out throughout the rest of the poem) concerning Whitman's view of "self" is that although he is speaking about himself...
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Song of Myself
In section 10 of Song of Myself, Whitman explores ideas of pastoral life, of being true to the life of a place, of living in such a way as to not deny natural impulses, and also of accepting the...
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Song of Myself
Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is a long sprawling poem in free verse that uses a narrative persona both specific in details such as age and place and mythic in its ability to incorporate the...
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Song of Myself
In section 6, Whitman explores first through the eyes of a child what grass is. They both venture mild conjecture that the grass has something to do with life, but the section quickly shifts to...
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Song of Myself
I think that the initial reactions to the Puritan writers like Bradstreet and Bradford would be to suggest that what Whitman sees as his reality outside of God is actually one that God creates....
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Song of Myself
"Two types" would be far too limiting for Whitman, who sought to contain "multitudes." In "Song of Myself," he uses himself and the wonders of his own body as a focal point from which he casts his...
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Song of Myself
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...
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Song of Myself
Much has been said about the end of "Song of Myself" here. It is true that Whitman is asserting his essential unity with everything, not just nature. From the beginning of the poem he asserts his...
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Song of Myself
Well, when Whitman says you, he means you, as in, "You there, holding the book, reading these words." That would seem to be the case, at least, for most of the poem -- when he says, "And what I...
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Song of Myself
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...
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Song of Myself
One of the critical elements in "Song of Myself" is the idea of transcendence, the ability to identify an essence within a human being that is universal and knows few, if any, boundaries. In this...
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Song of Myself
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...
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Song of Myself
I think that one of the most basic questions that can be raised out of Whitman's "Song of Myself" is whether or not there is a larger configuration that binds the individual. While the poem...
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Song of Myself
In Song of Myself, Whitman glorifies the self, but the self has a broader application. His "self" also applies to mankind. So, when he says: I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume...
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Song of Myself
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...