In Song Of Myself. 6, By Walt Whitman

“For these the old usages of poets afford Walt Whitman no means sufficiently fit and free, and he rejects the old usages. The style of the bard that is waited for is to be transcendent and new,” (Fitzgerald). Throughout history, Walt Whitman has been documented to have a unique style that had never been approached before. Whitman is believed to be a very radical figure of his time period, by never writing the way that previously had been traditional. Whitman began early in his life as a journalist, however later on he decided his true calling had become poetry. Thus, this began his career of poetry, where he wrote many poems. Unfortunately, during Whitman’s time, his poetry never became popular, and it was not until years later that it was …show more content…
Song of Myself #6 is an epic poem that speaks of the importance of grass. Through catalogues he expresses many different purposes of grass. However, by the end of the piece, he comes to the realization that grass is essential and a part of the circle of life. Grass grows from the ground in which people who have died are buried, he truly expresses this on page 429 in lines eight and nine, “They are alive and well somewhere, the smallest sprout shows there is really no death.” Through this line of the poem, he truly shows one aspect of his pedagogue, the circle of life. “In any event, Whitman can be seen as extending all the creative possibilities of the self which have been discussed so far: it’s socially representative or democratic aspects; its double or multiple nature; and the mysteriousness of that multiplicity” (Buell). During this time, this concepts of the circle of life was not a common concept. However, as stated in the quote, Whitman took his thinking farther than any other had before. This creative thinking and thought of the circle of life is just one aspect of circle of life. Whitman truly believed in the teaching of the multiplicity of the human …show more content…
This poem is easily one of the shortest sections of Song of Myself, but has one of the greatest meanings of the entire book. This five line poem talks of how Whitman hopes for the student to overcome every challenge the teacher presents them with and then going up and beyond the expectations. In the fourth and fifth line of this poem this is displayed, “He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.” His idea was that the youth can do better than the elderly and in a way ‘defeat’ them. This was the main goal of Whitman’s pedagogue, to help the students overcome any challenge. The most that can be said of Mr. Whitman 's vaticinations is, that, cast in a fluent and familiar manner, the average substance of them might escape unchallenged. But we have seen that Mr. Whitman prides himself especially on the substance—the life—of his poetry,” (James). This is just another example of how Whitman looked to exceed the limits, and for the students to do their very best, even better than their