The Poetry of Walt Whitman

The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetical nature. The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. Here is not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of nations (741).

This is what makes Whitman's poetry in general and "Song of Myself" in particular both important and uniquely American. He sets out to capture the Jeffersonian ideal of democratic equality in a roving, unabashed and sometimes daring poetic mode. Through- out "Song of Myself", he uses what he calls leaves, as opposed to blades, of grass as a metaphor for life and for individuality: Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord (line 102) . . . Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation. Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic (1056). . . Growing among black folks as among white (108).

That last line is especially noteworthy. In the pre-Civil War era when blacks were treated in person and by law as less than human, Whitman regards everyone as fully human. The 13th stanza, for example, is Whitman's admiring observation of a black man driving a team of

. . .
e a man, from the beautiful and benign to the sympathetic and brutal: The early lilacs became part of this child (line 5) . . . And the schoolmistress that pass'd on her way to the school (15) . . . And all the changes of the city and country wherever he went (18) . . . The mother with mild words, clean her cap and gown, a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by, The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, angr'd, unjust (24- 25). In "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," Whitman takes a bird's perspective to sing a song of land and love, using word repetition in italics with exclamation points to contrast exuberant hope with utter despair: Loud! loud! loud! I call to you my love! (8182) . . . Land! land! O land! Whichever way I turn (9091) . . . Carols of lonesome love! death's carols! (101) . . . O reckless despairing carols (104). He also uses word repetition to rhythmic effect in "Salut au Monde." What, Who, I hear, I see, I am, You, and Other are his repeated refrains as he recites a litany of people and events passing before him so that we see the world as he sees it. Here as elsewhere, he swoops the reader up with unabashedly naked emotion. This emotion is at the heart of Whit
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1549
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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