Democracy And Democracy In Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman emphasize the importance of living true to yourself and developing complete self-acceptance. To live true to yourself and completely accept who you are, you must understand your identity and your sense of self. In Self-Reliance, Emerson explains that your identity and your sense of self is spiritual. Whitman argues, in Song of Myself, that your identity and sense of self is based on both your soul and your body. While both Emerson and Whitman allow for intimate connections and friendships, Emerson encourages people to have relationships with a select few, whereas Whitman encourages people to connect with everyone and anyone, due to their different views of self.

In Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself’, one can appreciate the poem properly by understanding the poem’s voice, imagery, figures of speech, symbols, word choice, and theme. To understand it though requires a great deal of thought to arrive to the meaning behind the writing. Especially since this poem was written in the nineteenth century and is written in a very loose structure and free verse.

Walt Whitman was an American poet and journalist born on May 31, 1819. Whitman was influenced by transcendentalism, which was an idea emphasizing that to understand nature, one must analyze the reasoning or process behind it. Whitman had done many writings throughout his life that had been inspirations for other poets. For example, in the spring of 1855, Whitman published “Leaves of Grass”, which was a collection of twelve unnamed poems. This writing was enticed by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who thought that the collection of poems were “the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom.”

The majority of the poem has a very carefree tone about how joyous life is, but it becomes darker when he brings up society and its influence on individuals. Whitman uses this shift in tone to emphasize the positivity of individuals, which is a stark contrast to his tone when he brings up society’s hold on you. Whitman stresses the importance of remaining an individual despite society’s constant pressure to

Walt Whitman uses his poems to demonstrate gender equality by addressing the male and female forms as equals. After describing himself as a universal poet, of both “the woman the same as the man.” Whitman says that it is, “As great to be a woman as it is to be a man”(Whitman 24). During his lifetime, women were viewed as inferior to men; they did not have voting rights, and “contained fewer multitudes economically, intellectually, and psychologically” (Pollak 108). Whitman, on the contrary, expresses his respect for women as equals to men, and does not view one above the other.

William McFeely suggests that Frederick Douglass, like Walt Whitman, has written a “Song of Myself” with his slave narrative. Both fairly known in their own time, I am going to look at how they compare and how they are different from each other. Frederick Douglass with his autobiographical slave narrative and Walt Whitman with his poem “Song of Myself”. The question becomes how Douglass creates himself through his narrative and how it compares to Whitman’s self in his poem.

Walt Whitman attitude changes from when he talks about the Americans working hard to ending their day partying or relaxing. It starts off by showing the men working as hard as they can to contribute, then to the women working hard. Therefore, he ends it with joy and thankful attitudes. He also uses his title to give you a clue of what the poem will be about. It is what most poets do, but his was using personification.

He portrays this message by giving descriptions of different kinds of people and their occupations. An example of this is the line, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, / Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong” (Whitman 1-2). The “carols” mentioned in the quote represent the occupations and the mechanic described is an example of one of the many types of workers in America. This poem is different than “America” by Claude McKay because rather than presenting both the positives and negatives of America, Whitman only discusses the positives. Whitman’s writing differs from McKay’s because Whitman only shows one side of the topic.

It is common for a person to admire the stars in the sky. Their brightness and arrangement is a fascinating sight, of course. On the other hand, people tend to forget or plainly ignore what is right under their feet. In “Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman focused on what he thought was truly important, details of the green grass. Whitman wrote, “I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars” (663). This explains how he believed that the stars and the grass should be thought of as equal and man should show appreciation for grass as well. Moreover, Whitman implies that because the grass is so close in terms of touch, humans should enjoy it more since stars are completely out of reach. As it is evident that Whitman appreciates

“At the same time, he became increasingly interested in the ideas of early nineteenth century literary romantics. Whitman's political ideas became a mesh of his working-class background and literary aspirations” (Cmiel 205).Whitman, who once strongly believed in party politics and in the presidential office, deemed the three presidents prior to Lincoln as "our topmost warning and shame" (qtd. in Reynolds, “Politics and Poetry: Leaves of Grass and the Social Crisis of the I850s” 67). Whitman’s disappointment with the political figures turned him toward the mass and a kind of poetry to move the common people for change. He viewed “American society as an ocean covered with the ‘scum’ of politicians, below which lay the pure, deep waters of common humanity” (Reynolds, “Politics

A theme both poems “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman and “I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes share is equality. The poets both demonstrate equality by having their various characters ignoring their differences and coming together to sing. Whitman combines the many individual Americans together by saying “ I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear” (1), while Langston’s main character says “ I, too, sing America.” (1) even though he is different from the other characters. Langston and Whitman both relay that no matter what occupation or skin color people have they are equal and they sing together with all their different voices to make one beautiful song.

Walt Whitman is one of nine children, he grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and Long Island and was faced with many different aspects of society. Growing up he had a great fascination of the atmosphere of Brooklyn which led him to journalism at the age of twenty. In 1855 Walt Whitman self-published a collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass which was expanded and revised through many editions until the ninth “deathbed” edition which was published in 1892. His brother was wounded in Fredericksburg Virginia, shortly after Walt Whitman traveled to see him. Once he saw the aftermath he was compelled to work as a nurse in Washington, D.C. as a volunteer nurse, in this time he wrote many more poems.

One way that Whitman conveys his poetry is through the eyes of the everyday man. In this period of American history, the civil war was ongoing, and his poetry did not shy away from the everyday

The authors integrate self and views of the self in their texts, they also have specific words and phrases that they both use. Walt Whitman’s, “Song of Myself,” focuses on himself in the sense that the body is connected with nature. Throughout the portion of “Song of Myself,” Whitman describes a part of

His works are full of realistic qualities. Moreover, they are long with deep messages, as well as well-structured and detailed. Furthermore, his poems are democratic both subject and the language which shows how intellectual was his imaginary and visual style of writing. To both Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, the individualism in society has a huge importance which, at the same time, inspired their style of writing. Also, they accept the importance of God in connection with nature and immortality.