Walt Whitman's Poem Song Of Myself

Decent Essays
Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" is part of the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. Whitman is fascinated with the world and nature. He believes nature brings everything together. In the poem, Whitman sees himself in everyone. It is like he has different idenities. His contradictory ideas about spirituality is one of the main focus of the poem.It talks about the unity of body and soul. The poem expresses the transcendentalist idea of oversoul. OverSoul is the concept in which the universal spirit is the principle of all living things Walt Whitman opposes to organized religion and those who claim to speak truth. He believes that people should have faith in the order of nature.

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself” (lines 4-6). Whitman’s use of strong literary devices contributes to the image he is trying to show. In conclusion, this is how Whitman’s unique poem relates to…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Song of Myself is a poem by Walt Whitman’s. This poem introduces a constant stream of human awareness, where he attempts to dissect death as common and transformative process, which should strike everyone. Walt Whitman was an American artist conceived in 1819 and passed on 26th March 1892. The artist was conceived around the local area of Huntington, Long Island, New York, U.S.In one of the sections from the poem, “Song of Myself” Walt Whitman starts out with a child asking a question, “What is the grass?” Grass is a symbol of life.…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Walt Whitman is considered one of the greatest poets in history for incorporating new forms of writing in his poems. He developed free verse, a style many modern rap artists utilize. For these reasons, his impact on American poetry is also akin to the impact rap has had on American music. Firstly, Whitman often produced poetry that did not conform to the standard rhyme and meter of earlier works.…

    • 223 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Whitman's Unity Of Effect

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Think of the unity of effect like a cowboy riding a bull. The longer the cowboy stays on the bull, the more the audience feels the rush, the adrenaline. When every aspect of your writing is focused on a consistent point, a piece of emotion hits the readers. In order to achieve the unity of effect, one might begin to evoke beauty in all living and natural elements and add a touch of emotion, thus determining a desired unity of effect. Edgar Allan Poe uses a variety of literary devices and other styles of romantic writing in order to create the one emotional effect, the one goal and the one specific tone in his poems and short stories.…

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Songs of Myself and Nature both major examples of Transcendentalism in literature. Whitman and Emerson both embody Transcendentalism in different ways. Whitman speaks of people and equality, while Emerson discusses the shedding of one’s physical shape; yet both discuss the physical self and its limits of relating to others. Songs of Myself written by Walt Whitman is heavily embodied with Transcendentalism. Whitman uses the physical form to relate humans to each other.…

    • 195 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Both Emily Dickinson’s and Walt Whitman’s poems have numerous differences. Their writing styles differ as well, in that Emily Dickinson’s are short and simple, while Walt Whitman’s are long, complex and largely prose-style. In Whitman’s work, “Song of Myself”, you learn much about the author. The poem was written in phases, and on page 1024, the notes at the bottom of the page describe how the title of this poem was changed throughout the years. I think this is a semblance of how the poem’s meaning to Whitman changed and developed throughout the years.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There were many amazing poets that wrote about the Civil War. During the Civil War many different people wrote poems about the Civil War. The most common person who wrote about the Civil War was Walt Whitman. Whitman’s poems were about realism and trandsadalism.…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Regarding the content of the poem, Whitman addresses the balance of individualism and community in order for a democratic nation to succeed. A community is made up of individuals, so while all of the community members share common characteristics, they also have to differ from each other so the community can grow and progress. If every individual thought the same way and did the same things, the community would become stagnant. In “Song of Myself,” Whitman takes this ideology and adapts it to poetry. Poetry is typically about either the poet and their thoughts and actions, or about one character’s journey through the poem and their thoughts and actions.…

    • 1385 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Song of Myself is also a poem filled with 52 sections and I analyzed section 1 and 52. Overall, this poem does contain all tenants of transcendentalism, but some of the five tenets are used in different situations. Some similarities between both pieces of literature are that they both use the tenant of nature in similar context. In both poems, they use nature to describe and compare themselves as one with nature. In the poem by Maya Angelou she describes it as her rising just like dust rises in the air and in the one by Walt Whitman, he describes himself as being one with nature.…

    • 1149 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Third poem is "I hear America Singing" you get a sense of spirituality from feeling the strong spirits of the working Americans. "spirituality" was just one of the common themes but now we are gonna start with visions of America. In Walt Whitman poems there is a similarity in the common theme about visions of America. For "Song of Myself" America is not a place to Whitman, it was also an idea and a goal to shoot for. His America is a place where all people are equal; all jobs are equally important, and people feel for one another with a passionate, neighborly love.…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    1. In a sentence or two, what is the specific argument of "I Sing the Body Electric"? Why does this argument seem so important to Whitman (e.g., what is he speaking against?)? Overall, the specific argument made in Walt Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric” is that every single human life is sacred. Whether you’re a man or woman, black or white, Whitman argues that we are all comprised of the same organs and body parts, and are all equal at the end of the day. He writes, “Each belongs here or anywhere, just as much as the well-off—just as much as you” (Whitman 86), arguing that despite race, gender, or nationality, each individual human being has their own place in the world and deserves to have a life just like anyone else.…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” and Whitman’s “Song of Myself” depict both poets as they view the world through their own perspective and share their insight with readers. By analyzing elements in William Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” and Walt Whitman’s…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Song of Myself” Analysis In Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself”, the sporadic writing covers many topics and themes relating to the 19th century, bringing up various issues and pleasures he finds in society. “Song of Myself” transcends time by suggesting themes that are also applicable to modern society. Whitman draws attention to the unity of all living things through using symbolism and parallel sentence structure. The “leaves of grass” reappear throughout the poem and represent unity of life.…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In A Song of Myself, Whitman writes that “there is really no death, And if ever there was it led forward life ,” which conveys his opinion that death shouldn’t be regarded negatively as it is essential to allow new life. Perhaps Whitman’s use of free verse helps to convey his positive and fearless attitude towards death as it allows his poem flow freely without being constricted by regular meter, which could translate to the idea that life is isn’t constricted by eternal death. The use of free verse therefore, gives Whitman’s poem the characteristic of being organic and ongoing which corresponds to the idea that death is similarly part of the ongoing process of life. It is important to question Whitman’s positive views on death considering his numerous encounters with people dying throughout his life such as family members and soldiers her tended as a nurse in the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865. William J. Scheick describes how Whitman’s poetry “ not only reflects his century 's awareness of death and his own negotiation of apprehensions relating to mortality, they also reveal the poet 's deliberate effort to revise his culture 's attitude toward dying .”…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    During the Poem “Song of Myself” Walt Whitman examines the complex idea of belonging in society by using sly commentary and symbols alike, while writing with a seemingly egotistical style. This piece was one of the twelve poems from the original collection of “Leaves of Grass” published in 1855, which was shortly before the Civil War started. This was a time of despair for Whitman because he was living in a fractured union. During this piece Whitman used many evocative situations to capture the readers imagination. The piece was written with mid-level diction, yet each line is crammed with significant detail.…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays