Song of Myself

“Do I contradict myself?/Very well then I contradict myself,/(I am large, I contain multitudes.)” There is no doubt that Walt Whitman is one of the most timeless and classic writers from American history. His large influence on the free verse form of poetry paved the way for modern poets to come. His poems reflected his transcendentalist thoughts and great love for the relatively young country America. Walt Whitman wrote with a spirit that tried to define what it meant to be American at the time…

Finding Society In the novel of “The Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman, he finds himself in the place of society by in his beliefs. “I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass”. He believes that he is still apart of the world and nature because once the dead people are burry the person body decays into the ground. In the novel of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, Huckleberry finds his place in society by not following the society rules…

generally not discussed in literature during this time period, topics such as slavery, conforming to society and freedom. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn can be described as a reflection of modernity as well as American identity. Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself has similarities to Huck Finn in relation to its attitude towards modernity and American identity. As I mentioned earlier Twain was ahead of his time when writing Huck Finn, for instance the shear fact that one of his main characters…

relate to, but it is something that no one has ever been fully able to understand or describe. Everyone has their own interpretation of what life is, whether it involves religion, deep study or complex literature. Walt Whitman in his poem “From Song of Myself” manages to create a intricate description of human life through his uses of imagery, metaphor and symbolism. Whitman utilizes a variety of images to display the concept of life to his reader. These images include that of a child, a…

“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…

as individualism and community contradict each other as well as freedom and equality, and historically America has had difficulty balancing these ideals. One of Walt Whitman poems preaches the possibility that these concepts can work together. “Song of Myself” is Whitman’s paean to his ideal of American democracy, an idea which balances, or attempts to balance, freedom with equality, individualism with community, a relentlessly inclusive, or as Whitman puts it, “absorptive”…

Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels are both contemporary works of literature that each have their own ideas of the self. Whitman loves every aspect of the self as well as the nature and world surrounding it because he finds it just as valuable. Swift, however, displays his contempt for the self numerous times throughout his satire. Both of these authors share their opinions of the self in contrasting ways. When Whitman discusses the self, he is celebrating…

his confusion he felt qualified to represent all people even when they were on opposite ends of the spectrum. Much of this is expressed in the irony of his poetry. Such a style made him one of, if not, the best poet in American history. “From song of myself”, is a work that announced a new school of thought to the American people and introduced to the world a modern America. Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 born in West Hills on Long Island, New York and from the age of four he grew up on the…

is the writer of a 400 poem book called Leaves of Grass, which captures all aspects of nature and humanity through the use of spiritual language. Two examples of the published poems are Song of Myself and A Noiseless Patient Spider. Both poems promote the idea of enjoying what life has to offer. In Song of Myself, he mentions that he and the universe are the same and will celebrate himself and others. He sees the unity in people “born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their…

In Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself” section “A Child Said What is the Grass,” Whitman uses grass as a symbol to convey an underlying message. Specifically, that America is formed of all kinds of races and that we should all be equal to each other. In the following portion it states, “ I guess it must be the flag of my disposition,..” (lines 2-3). This is significant because Whitman is saying the grass represents one’s qualities. A flag signifies liberty, it gets blown by the natural air of…