Study of Self on Song of Myself

Walt Whitman, born 1819, appeared on the American scene at a time when the nation had, after travelling a long way from colonialism,
undergone many political and social changes. One of the greatest emotional forces of modern times and popularly known as the bard of
democracy, Whitman was singularly loved for representing a vast nation and for being and celebrating himself – a true American.
Greatly influenced by his father’s radical democratic ideas and his mother’s Quakerism, the natural scenes and sights of Long Island
where he was born and the literary influences of Homer and Shakespeare, Whitman’s fame rests with the Leaves of Grass which makes
him the poet of Democracy and the representative poet of America. Through a personal, philosophical and mystical journey, he sought
to stamp out a new type of character – his own, and to establish a universal brotherhood of men.
Coming to Whitman’s poem, “Song of Myself” which is the quintessence of Leaves of Grass, one finds in it all the themes, the profound
and the simple, contained in his poetry. ‘I celebrate myself’, sings Whitman, and this self-celebration throughout is the celebration of
himself as a man and an American. He identifies himself not only with man but with all living creatures. The idea of self is the most
significant aspect of Whitman’s expression of his mind and art. He considered the self to be both individual and universal. For him man
has an individual self whereas the world, or cosmos, has a universal or cosmic self. The self comprises ideas, experiences, psychological
states and spiritual insights. The poet scans over the wide surface of the New World, describing the landscapes, the trees and the valleys
with loving care and precision. As a conscious artist, a profound and original thinker, he formed a vital relationship between poetry and
life. He is like a Howard Hawks or a John Ford who used their cameras to capture wide areas of beautiful landscapes for their films.
One remembers the scenes in Gone With the Wind which Margaret Mitchell had written but perhaps could not visualize in a movie
whereas David O. Selznick could bring it out on the screen. Here Whitman uses nature as a background to present his ideas of life. Lines
quoted from the poem, “Song of Myself” have been taken from the Leaves of Grass 1856 Edition.
“Song of Myself ” is a song of praise, yet, from the recesses of the poet’s inner being, exhales an egotistic or personal feeling, a powerful
urge for expressing himself in so many ways.
“I know perfectly well my own egotism,
Know my omnivorous lines and must not write any less,”
( Section 42, lines 1083 – 1084)
The word ‘myself’ is at the vortex of Whitman’s thought process. The very title and first line suggest the poet’s desire to celebrate
himself.
“I celebrate myself , and sing myself,”
(Section 1, line 1)
The opening section states the theme viz. a complete identity between himself and the rest of humanity. In singing of himself, Whitman
identifies himself with the American masses.
“And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good
belongs to you”
(Section 1, line 2-3)
These lines express a sort of pantheistic faith that the inner essence of all is one and indivisible.
He invites his soul to “lean and loaf” and observe “a spear of summer grass” which symbolizes the procreant power of nature. In other
words, Whitman belongs entirely to nature and feels at one with her.
“My tongue, every atom of my blood, Form’d from this soil, this air,”
(Section 1, line 5)
The ‘I’ in the poem offers itself to numerous interpretations. It is the poet himself, all Americans, the natural man and also, perhaps, a
spectator standing apart and watching the varied aspects of life. Whitman magnifies the self and glorifies the senses in his progress
towards a union with the Absolute.
The poem develops through seven major stages. Section 1 to 5 mark the poet’s entry into the mystical state. He moves away from
worldly associations and goes to the woods “undisguised and naked”. He wants to be in contact with nature like Wordsworth and to feel
“The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and
Dark-color’d sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,”
(Section 2, line 24)
Sections 6 to 16 tell us about the awakening of the self to higher levels of consciousness. There is a continued expansion of the poet’s
self until it appears to embrace all mankind.
“I am the mate and companion of people,
all just as immortal and fathomless as myself,”
(Section 7, line 137)
and
“In me the caresser of life wherever moving, Backward as well as forward swing,
To niches aside and junior bending, not a person or object missing,
Absorbing all to myself and for this song.”
(Section 13, lines 232-234)
Sections 17 to 32 deal with the purification of the self. Whitman turns from the vast extension of his identity to the pervasive equality
of all beings.
“I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,”
(Section 21, line 422)
Sections 28 to 30 describe the sexual ecstasy and fulfilment which lead to a “new identity.” Here we find the traditional mystical pattern
inverted as the senses are purified not by mortification but by transfiguration and glorification.
“My flesh and playing out lightning to strike what is hardly
different from myself,”
(Section 28, line 662)
Section 33 begins with a higher stage of perception showing the poet winning his way through purification to illumination, thereby
gaining mystic knowledge and insight.
“Space and time now I see it is true, what I guess’d at, what I guess’d when I loaf’d on the grass,”
(Section 33, lines 710-711)
Freed from life’s physical restraints, he momentarily transcends space and time. But in Section 33 itself the mood gradually shifts from
exultation to darkness and despair when the poet identifies himself with the sick and the wounded, the unwanted and the destitute.
“Agonies are one of my changes of garments,
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels,
I myself become
the wounded person,”
(Section 33, lines 844-845)
This identification continues uptil Section 37 when suddenly the reader encounters an abrupt shift in attitude in Section 38 where the
poet says:
“Enough! enough! enough!
Somehow I have been stunn’d, stand back!”
( Section 38, line 959)
Thereafter, Sections 39 to 43 emphasize faith, love and identification of Christ. The poet’s sudden achievement of wisdom, and a
knowledge of that union with the Absolute, bestows him with divine energy and certainty.
In Sections 44 to 49 the emphasis is on perception, and the poet’s “supreme power” becomes the power of mystic insight into the
fundamental questions of existence.
“births have brought richness and variety,
and other births will bring us richness and variety.”
(Section 44, lines 1140-1141)
and
“And as to you death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me.”
(Section 49, line 1289)
Finally, we have the concluding Sections 50 to 52 portraying the poet’s emergence from his mystical trance. Physical and spiritual
exhaustion put him into a deep sleep from which he again gropes his way back to the consciousness of the material world but expresses
his inability to put into adequate words the substance of what he has learned. The last Section comprises his farewell and treatment:
“I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.”
(Section 52, lines 1339-1340)
The poem, “Song of Myself” clearly appears to be a meditative soliloquy where the self has been conceived as the protagonist swaying
alternately between defining itself and yet again having no definition. Whitman’s metaphor of self versus en masse is a paradox revealing
at once the poet’s ambivalence in stating man to be unique and separate in himself, while, on the other hand, stating him to be the same
as everyone else.
Democratic view of Song of Myself
First published in 1855 in Whitman's collection Leaves of Grass, 'Song of Myself' is one of the best known and most influential poems
ever written by an American(Robert Lee,1985). Running to somewhere around 70 pages anddivided into 52 sections, 'Song of Myself'
takes the reader on an epic journey through many settings, time periods, viewpoints and personas. Walt Whitman had some radical
ideas about America, democracy, spirituality, sexuality, nature and identity. He used 'Song of Myself' to explore those ideas while
preaching self-knowledge, liberty and acceptance for all. (Lee, 1985).

With its free-form and loose’ structure’, its compelling rhythms, multiple themes and shifting narrators, 'Song ofMyself' is widely
considered one of the first truly modern poems.(Williams,2010). No one had ever read anything quite like it before, and it wielded a
heavy influence on 20th century poets like T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg. In fact, some of Whitman's passages
are so steamy that they shocked contemporary readers. Emily Dickinson, who wrote poetry around the same time as Whitman, once
said of him, 'I have never read his book, but I was told that he was disgraceful.(Reynolds, 2000.)

Walt Whitman is, without doubt, the American poet par excellence.(Williams,2010 ) His ‘Americaness’ –so to speak-is characterized
by his rejection of the conventional, genteel and romantic poetry of the Nineteenth Century. The poet, Whitman says, would not content
himself with making beautiful contrived verses. Thus, the great American poet would create both new forms and new subjects for his
poetry.So that rhyme would no longer remain primary. Uniformityof stanzaic pattern would be abandoned , it would even turn toward
a new content. This does not mean that the poetwould totally repudiate past beliefs but, he would incorporate them into new ones, just
as Americans are a mixture of many people of many nationalities. To be commensurate with this new American stock, the poet would
incarnate the American geography, occupations and the people themselves in a new and transcendent poetic form. In other words, the
poet is –as Whitman is to argue in Democratic Vistas – a kind of spokesman for his people . He is not only an individual voice but
also the voice of his nation.

1
“Song Of Myself “ is the greatest of Whitman’s poems and also the most problematic and difficult of his works. This stylistically
various poem was a turning point in his career, it also absorbed his efforts for several years. He forged his language instrument and
his inclusive, miscellaneous form in order to write it.

“Song Of Myself” marks Whitman’s attempt at a democratic epic in which Walt Whitman is the outstanding hero, but behind him all
people are celebrated. Through the title of the poem Whitman promises to “sing” a simple and separate self, yet before going further
in the reading of the poem, we notice that neither Whitman nor the image that he projects of himself can be described as simple. We
discover that this separate self is always merging with other persons. We would expect him to talk about himself, but he still gives us
very little concrete information about Walt Whitman(Clark,1955). His eagerness for democracy, and his need to embrace everything
and everybody is highly suggested from the very beginning, thus the poem opens,

I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
“Song OF Myself” is one of those modern circular epics that tell the story of their own creation. It enacts Whitman’s birth as a poet.
In other words, it records and relates an artist’s struggle to become himself- the making of the poet. (Matt Miller,2010) Unlike ,
virtually every other poem of the century , “Song Of Myself” does not tell a story or unfold an argument. The material Whitman uses
in this poem includes almost everything. It surveys all aspects of nature along with all facets of American life. It includes erotic
passages, fantasia of geology and astronomy, a sketch of a sea-battle, another of a wartime massacre, tableaux of a horse, a butcher, a
blacksmith at work, a Negro worker, a fleeing slave, a sad lonely woman, also of vivid dawns and sunsets and so forth. All of these
come to contribute to the changeable portrait of a man named on line 497, Walt Whitman, who we are told is creating this uninterrupted
flow as a form for himself, a celebration of himself. (Zweig,p.229)
The classic epic poems have been masterpieces of inclusion, in the way they have acted as sources and points of reference expanding
circles of knowledge. (Britannica) In this sense, “Song Of Myself” is also an epic .It is, too, a masterpiece of inclusion ,although it
inverts the familiar epic pattern. It does not tell a story , its hero has not accomplished any valiant or brave actions, or rather his action
is , without doubt , the poem itself. Anyhow, like any other epic “Song Of Myself “ accommodates quantities of knowledge and
information and provides various tableaux of human life. Its hero is, simply, an ordinary man who has led a remarkably commonplace
life.
In writing this epic, Whitman comes out with a new kind of poetry, almost a prose- like verse. The poem is entirely composed of lines
he grouped from his earliest notebooks, journalistic articles and books. He picks up fragments and portraits from some newspapers,
brackets passages from books and turns them into a poem. He also makes use of some French and Spanish words. The idea behind the
mixture of other tongues is , obviously, to suggest that “Song Of Myself” is an Universal poem that celebrates all mankind.
All these cuttings, fragments portraits and borrowed words … complement and complete each other. They all contribute to a whole
effect as the sounds of musical instruments contribute to an orchestra. In that sense, the poem can be considered as an oration meant
to be chanted and the speaker is , undoubtedly, the singer. Hence, the title “Song Of Myself. “.
Unlike many other poems, “Song Of Myself is not framed by a single setting , it takes the Universe and all times as its setting . For the
poem seems to flow from surprise to surprise , from theme to theme, from scene to scene and nothing seems too peculiar to find a
place in it. The poem leaps from subject to subject and hovers among a plurality of meanings and interpretations giving the reader a
wide range of scenes, catalogues and tableaux which are in turn intricate bristling and random ; and their randomness is highly
suggestive for they can be considered as extended symbols of a mind that accepts everything and excludes absolutely nothing.
The poet, or more accurately, the singer celebrates here what is ordinary and available to everyone. He draws pictures and tableaux of
the ordinary living , of the different aspects of nature , the forms and habits of animals , the sights of cities and the daily activities of
common people.(Clark, 1955).
2
There is no tightly knit overall structure to “Song Of Myself “, but in general the plot of the poem can be called the universalization
of the self(zweig,1986). The first four sections present the leading themes and motifs of the poem, make a personal statement about
the age and health of ‘the singer’, affirm the elusiveness and yet the autonomy of the self , which is a mystery not to be discovered by
mere “trippers and askers”.
From the very beginning, the poem assumes a dialogue form, as suitable for a prophet-poet, by addressing “You”, that is any man or
woman in a perfectly equalitarian life of which “the leaves of grass” are the general symbol. The tone is both that of the potential lover
and that of the teacher who both assume a very close position to the scene and show some affection and sympathy for the people and
the landscapes which the poem moves through.
Throughout the first sections of the poem , Whitman’s ‘singer’ glories in his anonymity. Apart from few information concerning his
age ,health and origin we don’t know him. We don’t know even his name or how he earns his living. His actions of any sort are few,
but everything, for the ‘everything’ that is the poem, happens to him. This anonymous singer dominates the whole poem, and he is, in
some sort, the poem itself singing, celebrating, reciting and ironizing. Thus, Whitman’s unified setting for “Song Of Myself “is not a
place but a voice , various and broad enough to say everything. It is not only an individual voice but it is the voice of all his nation.
More than that,, it is a cosmic voice belonging to everybody and to everywhere. In that sense the poem is an Opera in which all the
voices are one (Lee,1985).
“ Song Of Myself “ has puzzled its readers because its intricate balancing of themes seems to call out for interpretation. The poem
surely “ means “ something ; yet it slides out of reach, hovers amid a plurality of meanings until giving up, then the reader understands
that the poem is simply itself: a musical whole spoken by a disembodied voice, in turn playful , mournful, satirical .Despite this seeming
elusiveness, Whitman tries, sometimes, to help the reader by inserting some parenthetical comments – a sort of stage directions -by
which he claims to tell only the truth: what you are reading here really happened, I did not make it up; this is not literature, but fact,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at even hazard Nature without check with original energy [L12/13;Sect. 1]
He is saying that there is no art here – no poem - , there is only ‘nature’, only spontaneous utterance. Don’t look here, in this poem, for
second thoughts or cunning echoes, for foreshadowing and formal development .Here is a voice speaking before it thinks . “For good
or bad” “Song Of Myself” is no poem? It is a reckless present tense; it is a broad voice becoming naked to us ,” I will go to the bank
by the wood and became undisguised and naked,”(L19). The poem as a whole claims not to be literature; it wants to be read naively
as a window on the truth. In one of his essays, Whitman states,” No one will get at my verses who insists on viewing them as a literary
performance, or attempt at such a performance, or at aiming mainly toward art or aestheticism.”(Lee Robert:p.43)
Now everything is almost clear, the over abundant quantity of images, the vast range of subject matters, the various shiftings and leaps,
the startling variety of voices’ tones tend to give an accurate and truthful view of life. All these suggest the arbitrariness and plural
significance of life.[Sects.3/4]
“Song Of Myself “ is not only a voice , it is a voice that cannot stop singing and reciting, delighted with its own fullness, plunged into
its unuttered future. The poem’s present tense is so reckless and hurried , ”I speak at every hazard…..” that it seems to have no past
and no memory. That is to say , the poem is not about anything anymore than life is about something. It is simply happening , it is
about itself , about its own creation. Here again we can see the effect of the poet’s “twoness” or his ability to watch himself act, to
know and orchestrate his presence. An important example of this ability occurs in Section Five ,
I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you, And you must not be abased to the other.[L.82/83]
In this section “the plot “of the poem begins. Here the self is imagined to be engaged in a conversation with itself, as the soul might
be imagined to be in a dialogue with the body. This passage seems to record an actual moment of illumination- yet nobody is sure if
Whitman experienced such a moment and became a poet because of it.(Zweig.1985)
Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and Knowledge that pass all the argument of the earth,[L.91…100]
It is one of the rare stanzas in “Song OF Myself” to be written in the past tense. Here , Whitman is memorializing the process by which
his corporal body was, as it were, consumed and spiritualized; he describes it vividly as a physical caress of his body by his soul .This
swift and sudden transcending of the distinction between the body and the soul is accompanied by a vision of the infinite significance
of the details of the created world .The marriage of the soul and the body leads the singer to an ecstatic
moment when he feels himself in complete harmony with all of nature,
… a keelson of the creation is love, And limitless are leaves stiff or drooping in the fields, And brown ants in the little wells beneath
them And mossy scabs of the worm fence, heap’d stones, elder , mullein, and poke- weed.[Lines:95/98]
This ‘erotic “ contact of the soul and the body gives way to this triumphant lyric: a song of an illuminated moment when Whitman’s
“twoness” dissolves in an act of love.
In the first line of section Six , a child asks “ the singer” a question “what is grass”? A very crucial question to which the entire poem
will be an answer: It is a ‘hieroglyphic’ ; it is a bed of love ; it is what the earth utters , to remind man that death and life are there.
Grass is the symbol of the countless varieties of experience that Whitman or his “singer” catalogues on his world – circling
journeys,(Paul Zweig,p.256)
This is the grass that grow wherever the land and water is. This is the common air that bathes the globe.(L.108).
WHITMAN’S DEMOCRACY
Grass is offered , here, an universal significance in the sense that it represents everything in this created World . It is a “uniform” fitting
everybody; it is a message to the whole world. It is an ubiquitous figure that travels all around the world like the cosmic “I” that sings
the poem. A leave of grass is a democratic symbol that makes no distinction between regions or between people. It grows in” broad
zones and narrow zones,” among black folks as among white, Kannuck, Tuckahoe, congressmen, cuff.” The grass makes all human
beings –whatever their nationality is or whatever their position is – equal. Kannuck (French-Canadian ), Tuckahoe ( Virginian), Cuff
( Negro) and congressmen are the same ( “Song Of Myself “).
The poem is, like Joyce’s Ulysses , about its own process of creation ; and Whitman’s’ singer’ is made by his poem. He is a creature
of language. The poem is a body and at the same time a literary performance. It is the flesh that is grass, but it is also a meditation on
the capacities of language. If we bear in mind, for instance, the double meaning that shimmer in the poet’s scene of love making on
the grass which is at once an erotic song, and a commentary on the new poetry Whitman invents and experiments in “Song Of Myself.
“ In this act the self and the soul , the watcher and the “singer’’ combine to give an effective answer to the child’s question “what is
grass ? ” . The answer which will be multitudinous and long : it will be the poem itself.
At this point Whitman’s singer rises from his bed of grass and journeys forth exploring the world. From now on – though by no
means in a straight or continuous line- all goes “onward and outward” in the poem until the end. The identification of the self, “ I “,
not only with the nations and with all mankind but with the immortal and the Divine, the “Great Comerado” is affirmed,
And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own, And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own, And that all
men even born are also my brothers,
And the women my sisters and lovers,[L92/94]
From this point onward, the poem will develop into a rhapsody celebrating the democratic life, the fecund creativity of the self and the
benign Universe in which death is overcome by rebirth and reincarnation. “Song Of Myself “ is , then, an “open road” going“nowhere”
and “everywhere”; a road that Whitman’s singer travels within. The subsequent sections of the poem accord well withWhitman’s
democratic aspirations and societal ideals.
The singer journeys forth an exploration of the life he witnesses . He moves from a description of the natural process to the drawing
of a catalogue or a tableau of the ordinary life surrounding him : a butcher and a blacksmith at work, a Negro worker, a fleeing slave
, a sad lonely ,woman…
All the remaining sections of the poem are a presentation of the different aspects of the American life beginning with individuals ,
moving to the crowds and bustle of the city ,”the hurrahs and the mobs” and back again to the singer in the last section.
Somewhere in the middle , the shy solitary self observing “ a spear of grass “ in the first lines of the poem, has “extracted strength”
from his long journey around the world, now will shout his name,
Walt Whitman, a kosmos , Of Manhattan the son,Turbulent , fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding, No sentimentalist, no
stander above men and women or Apart from them No more modest than immodest.
Unscrew the locks from the doors! Unscrew the doors themselves for their jambs! [lines 497 … Sect. 24]
It is the first time in the poem when the singer’s anonymity is broken . He reveals himself as an American from Manhattan . He has
eaten and drunk ; he has lain naked on the grass ; traveled along an open road exploring different facets of life. He has also made this
poem , and now his name busts from his lips.
The prime function of the epic is to extend and expand circles of knowledge .“ Song Of Myself ” like any other epic accommodates
countless images of ordinary life . More than that it takes us to the prehistoric pagan times; grapples into its language all religions ,the
geological past , the violence of history, to Jesus’ time in Judea. Whitman’s road opens ever wider,
Rise after rise bow the phantoms behind me, A far down I see the huge first nothing, the vapor from the nostrils of death I know I was
ever there … I wait unseen and always And slept while God carried me true the lethargic mist , … [sect.24]
Continuously, “Song Of Myself” circles within an overwhelming scope of contradictions . We find that several times, Whitman sings
out about “worship” and “prayer” – he uses the language of church going – but at the same time about “armpits” and “copulation”
(sect. 24 ) . Several times Whitman will push to the edge of his paradox : To be a self with a name and yet to be everything and
everyone.
His grass egotism and eager democracy, His defiances and his need to embrace everything blur together. And each time he will spiral
into a wider orbit , finding out that his cosmic journey is unbendable ; that his appetite can never be satiated , and the world never
completely internalized.(Zweig,1986) Striving to conclude his poem with a climax or a finality , Whitman decides at last that the
poem can have no end. Even so there must be some sort of ending however arbitrary , and the solution is a neat one : achieving a final
relation of the singer and the reader which is not concluded yet ( Lee,1985) “ I stop somewhere waiting for you” the poem , thus openly
proclaims that its formal ending is merely arbitrary .
I depart as air , I shake my white locks at the runway sun I effuse my flesh in eddies , and drift it in lacy jags
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged Missing me one place search another, Stop somewhere waiting for you.[sect.52]
The poem ends with dusk. But the grass will continue to grow , the singer will be waiting for the reader ; the cycles of death and
resurrection , like the cycle of day and night , will continue . The poem’s end will not be a true ending , merely an articulation of
endlessness is projected in the continuous present participle , which tries to make the poem “ a grammar of eternal life” achieving a
triumph over the threat of death and finality of poetry .(Lee,p.46 )
CONCLUSION
“Song of myself ” is, then , an epic poem surveying countless quantities of references and knowledge ; offering wide range of tableaux
of ordinary living – catalogues of American life - , bringing to the present scene , images of history , of different religions and so forth.
All these threads are woven with an incredible skill to serve one purpose and one idea on which Whitman’s mind is focused: the
possibilities for human happiness within an ordered, equal democratic society,
And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them And such us it is to be of these more or less I am,
And of these one and all I weave the Song Of Myself.[sect.15: L 327/329].
“Song Of Myself” , like Ulysses , presents a puzzling and overwhelming number of information and facts . The reader has to follow
the shifting images and tone, the rising and falling cadence , the casual leap from theme to theme , as one follows the rhythms of voice
speaking its mind “ I permit to speak at every hazard “ . Yet, this voice never lets one down, for there is always a flow, an explanatory
reaching for the next thought, idea and image. Consequently the reader’s mind must move like that; it must veer and amble forward;
it must change moods unpredictably, avoid statements in favor of suggestions and abstractions in favor of physical and concrete images.
In short, in “song of myself”, Whitman emerges as the champion of equality and democracy. His art is one mode of the totality of
American discourse; thus, in asserting a new democratic identity through poetry, Whitman actively asserts a new democratic identity
for American politics and culture.(Serry,2011)
Unfortunately, he didn't succeed in making all of his fellow Americans see the common bonds between them: the Civil War started
five years after this poem (included in Leaves of Grass)was first published. But Whitman was endlessly optimistic, and he believed
that the real "America" and the real "democracy" were still around the bend. As the end of the poem states, Whitman is still out there,
somewhere, waiting for the rest of Americans to catch up with him,
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. You will hardly
know who I am or what I mean, But I Shall be good health to you nevertheless, And filter and fibre your blood. Failing to fetch me at
first keep encouraged, Missing me one place search another, I stop somewhere waiting for you. [Lines 1339/1346 Sect.52.]
Transcendental idea in Song of Myself
Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” examines the spiritual indivisibility of life through the narration of an all-seeing poet character.
The speaker, who calls himself “Walt Whitman” (Whitman 499), exposes himself to the perspectives of the living world in order to
present his listener with the gift of unadulterated, empathetic consciousness. Throughout the free-verse poem, Whitman consistently
employs direct address and the cataloguing of living personas in short vignettes. His use of these devices establishes a sense of
transcendental unity for his audience and is intended to help his audience grow to be conscious in the way that the speaker is. However,
Whit- man’s choice to directly transform the way his audience empathizes with the living world is not only evidence of his
transcendental poetic perspective, but also shows his innovative intent to include as many as possible in his in- tended poetic audience,
a goal that many of his transcendentalist peers did not have in mind.
Whitman directly addresses his listener 113 times in “Song of Myself.” Each time, it is part of an explicit call for his reader to appreciate
the unity and connectedness of life. In the opening lines of his poem, Whitman begins his refrain by stating “what I assume you shall
assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (2-3). Next, he insists that if you “Stop this day and night with me
… you shall possess the origin of all poems,” (Whitman 33), but that “You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from
me, / You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self ” (Whitman 36-37). From these exclamations one can infer that
Whitman in- tends this poem to be transformational, but he also does not elevate himself above his listener. This is quite similar to the
transcendental belief that people should not have to access the glory of God through intermediaries like the clergy, but that He can be
found within oneself and in nature. Historian Paul Reuben explains in his overview of transcendental belief that this attitude stems
from transcendentalists’ insistence that “God can be found every- where,” and that “God can be found in both nature and human
nature” (4). In fact, he elaborates, transcendental- ists upheld the notion that “One must have faith in intuition,” above all (Reuben 4).
Thus, when Whitman states that after reading this poem the audience will “possess the origin of all poems” (33), he means that by
allowing oneself to observe the glorious indivisibility of all life, one can transcend the need to seek out other’s interpretations of its
mysteries. Whitman is not conflating himself with God, nor taking on a holier-than-thou persona; while it is clear that he reveres the
ability to feel conscious of the world, he would like to help his audience access it in themselves.
The speaker - Whitman - is providing this poem to humanity in an effort to break down the artificial barriers created by an incorrect
and limiting sense of separateness. Whitman continues: “I believe in you my soul” (82). With this assurance, Whitman reaffirms that
the “I” with which he refers to himself is no different than the “you” that he is addressing. This line identifies Whitman’s firm stance
that he is no better than his audience; not only are all people one, but Whitman includes himself with those people. According to
Reuben, transcendentalists like Whitman were incredibly devoted to the idea that “The unity of life and universe must be realized [and
that there] is a relationship between all things” (4).
Whitman then begins to expand the definitions of the “you” he is addressing. First, he describes the “you” seemingly as a lover laying
with him on a summer’s day. Then, when he begins to contemplate the nature of grass, he refers directly to “you” as “curling grass”
(Whitman 111). When he begins imagining the experiences of other living beings, he calls “you” a lonely spinster, an ox, and asks
“are you the President?” (Whitman 431). In these ways he again blurs the meanings of “you,” showing that it is not only you and he
who are connected, but you and all other living beings. This connection, according to Reuben, is a product of the transcendental belief
in the “Oversoul,” which stands for the presence of God connecting all living beings (4). Because of this concept, transcendentalism
expounds the idea that it is important to rid oneself of the notion that one life is more valuable than another because all life is connected
by the same presence of God. Whitman translates this belief when saying that you are everything from a piece of grass to the chief
executive, showing that the Oversoul unites all who exist in between the two. Whitman’s firm and consistent exploration of the many
“you”s who exist is not only evidence of his transcendentalist perspective, but also lays the foundation for his innovative attitude
toward including not just the literary elite in his intended audience, but all who live or have lived.
Whitman approaches this inclusionary transcendentalist ideal through his cataloguing of multiple and varied personas throughout
“Song of Myself.” Whitman scholar Michael Warner refers to this technique as a “so- cial montage and thumbnail characterization”
of the pub- lic (xvii). Whitman observes this montage of life in two ways. First, he begins to insert himself in certain scenes as a
physical observer, joining the action and affecting the outcome. At the beginning of his exploration, he himself lifts up the mosquito
net covering a baby’s cradle to peer at it, watches two young children playing together and acts almost like a detective when looking
at the body of a man who shot himself. He then joins in a farm’s harvest, physically being beside the working men:
I am there, I help, I came stretch’d atop of the load, I felt its soft jolts, one leg reclined on the other,
I jump from the cross-beams and seize the clover and timothy,
And roll head over heels and tangle my hair full of wisps (Whitman 171-174)
By joining the men, Whitman both becomes an authority on their experience as well as an observer. With this approach, he continues
to directly connect the role of poet to that of the listener. He also repeats this process by becoming a clam-digger, a hunter, and a white
man who has tentatively taken in a fugitive slave. By cataloguing these experiences and inserting himself within them, he furthers his
attitude that his audience should see themselves in his poetry. Author Robert Ruehl refers to this attitude as a vestige of the
transcendentalist belief in the importance of building “self-culture” (1). By including the general public in this transcendentalist
conversation of a poem, Whitman allows the audience to make this trans- formation their own. Later, Whitman begins to list more
categorically vignettes of people’s lives that he is only observing from the outside looking in. In these, while he may state that he is
present, it is always a passive presence that seems more imagined than truly experienced. He observes a duck-shooter, a black man
whom he calls a “picturesque giant” (Whitman 230), and new immigrants, among many others. His audience is positively over-
whelmed with short insights into other people’s lives. By bombarding his audience with these short peeks into the experiences of
others, Whitman highlights the diversity of life and continues to promote the transcendental ideal of unity with other beings.
Whitman’s inclusionary approach to his subject matter was very much innovative for his literary era. In- deed, not only did his poetry
make waves in transcendental literary spheres, but the fact that his words were able to reach anyone at all is in itself incredible. A self-
educated man, Whitman did not come from a literary background or grow up having connections to the literary world.
According to Warner, Whitman was raised by a carpenter father in working-class Brooklyn, New York (xvi). His first book of poetry,
Leaves of Grass, was self-published (Warner xiv), although wildly controversial when it came into print (Warner xix). In this way,
Whitman is a different type of poet than other, more traditionally educated members of the transcendentalist movement that came
before him. How far he had to propel himself to be noticed by the literary elite only speaks to his talent and self-determination. But
can he be an authority on the perspectives of others? As a 19th century, white, male, middle-class poet, can his depictions of lives that
he did not live be accepted? “Song of Myself” deals in the ideal: the workingman, the suffering slave, the fertile young moth- er.
Whitman picks up and puts down these personas like costumes, only imagining them while others experienced them in even more
multifaceted ways. Are the people in Whitman’s poem afforded the respect that he calls on his audience to feel for all living beings?
While it is fair to call into question Whitman’s authority in telling the stories of others, it can be agreed that his push to acknowledge
and include the experiences of the unspoken for helped begin to establish a greater, invaluable, progressive innovation in the American
literary environment. Likely, Whitman’s push to tell these stories was influenced by a transcendentalist passion for educating the
masses. As a form of activism, according to Ruehl, transcendentalists believed “in a peaceful revolution by example” (1). However,
the way many transcendentalist thinkers approached this was to speak out to those already among the literary elite. Reuhl writes that
many transcendentalists professed their ideas through “journaling…and lecturing on the lyceum circuit” (1). In these two ways
specifically, transcendentalists were really only speaking to other members of their philosophical circle. It is not as if a lay-person
could be in the intended audience of an erudite literary journal or attend an exclusive lyceum lecture. In this manner, the typical
expression of transcendentalist thought during Whitman’s time did not include the general public within its intended audience. And it
takes no mental gymnastics to see how working-class Whitman, who Warner professes was “uncomfortable and silent” among the
“literati” (xviii) might have noticed this discrepancy. With this in mind, Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is clearly written for the lay-
man. In it, Whitman embodies an Americana overlooked by the literary elite and includes it in his transcendentalist conversation. By
bridging this gap between those who are talked about and those who talk about them, Whitman progresses further than many of his
contemporaries and applies transcendentalist thought in a way unparalleled by many of his peers.
“Song of Myself” marks a progressive watershed in American poetry. By exploring many perspectives of the experience of life,
Whitman facilitated the acknowledgement of many voices America had never heard before.
Urging his audience to broaden the boundaries of their empathy, compassion, and respect for living beings, he introduced to the country
an accessible transcendentalism focused on uniting the masses. Whitman’s employment of direct address to his listeners allowed them,
regardless of whether they were a members of the typical literary audience, to observe with him the many perspectives of the world.
By inundating his audience with the catalogued stories of others, he opened them up to imagining the lives behind his vignettes,
allowing them to be more fully conscious of other lives. Whitman’s “Song of Myself” offers up the revolutionary idea that stories that
are not always told deserve to be imagined anyway. By exploring the concept of collective consciousness with his listener, Whitman
proves himself to be a true leader in transcendentalist thought. But more than that, his accessible, undeniably American poem embodies
fully the transcendental ideal of, what Reuhl calls, “peaceful revolution by example”.
Humanistic Idea in Song of Myself
The concept of humanism is profoundly ingrained in the works of Whitman. Although to define humanism is not easy yet many
theorists and critics have attempted to do this. There are diverse connotations of this term. The basic definition of humanism is to take
care of the human demands, needs , desires and the main concern is to give humans a special place in the universe on account of their
abilities and faculties. The humanists for centuries have been concerned about the cultivation of human capabilities and to study the
products of human endeavors in art and literature. Many philosophers have tried their level best to explain the very nature of human
existence. It could be started from an allusion to the famous Greek philosopher Protagoras whose dictum “Man is the measure of all
things” had created controversy during his time.
W.T Stance interprets the above dictum as follows: “ ‘Man is the measure of all things’; certainly but man as a rational being, not man
as a bundle of particular sensations, subjective impressions, impulses, irrational prejudices, self-will, mere eccentricities, oddities,
foibles, and fancies” (W.T stance 123).
In simpler terms the dictum agrees to the fact that there is no distinction between sense and reason. Each individual has the ability to
distinguish between good and bad, so each person becomes a moral self. Here ‘moral’ is not used in the sense of following defined set
of religious beliefs rather it refers to a more universal concept of morality that strengthens the faith that all people have an intrinsic
worth. Thus the Protagoras philosophy sowed the seeds of humanism which would grow into a huge tree with numerous interpretations
and assumptions.
Another Greek philosopher, Socrates, was also a great humanist and interpreted humanism through his axiom “know thyself”. He
prophesized the philosophy of conjoining man with the eternal through the right knowledge which is virtue. Socrates placed virtue,
knowledge and human happiness at the same pedestral and the reason behind this is that right knowledge in particular ought to lead
man to perform right action which ultimately leads to immense happiness. Hence he stressed on self-actualization and self- realization.
Plato’s ideas of humanism advocate the establishment of balance between reason, spirit and desire. He seeks to create a better self and
proclaims that humans could achieve virtue by acquiring greater capacity for wisdom and rationality. Thus both Plato and Socrates
have concern for the well-being of humans. Their teachings were followed by Aristotle, according to whom reason becomes man’s
highest attribute and his glory as well. He emphasized the study of human virtue and asserted that man must not be viewed as an angel
or devil but as a human being. This could be directly related to what Whitman said that He did not belong to the goodness only but
also to the wickedness. Hershell Baker comments on Aristotle remarks and says: “His (Aristotle’s) is the most urbane kind of
humanism, one that candidly names as its object an attainable good” (Hershell Baker 63). Hershell Baker sums up the Greek view of
Humanism in the same book in these words: “To understand his own morphology as well as that of the universe is man’s highest
function and leads to the state of well-being which is virtue. This is the apogee of humanism which for the Greek was an attitude and
habit of mind rather than a philosophical system or cult.” (104)
In the ancient Greek literature the strain of humanism is prominent and can be seen in work like Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex where the
protagonist struggles against the inevitable cosmic forces but does not lose heart. This shows that Greek humanism had profound
respect for mankind and it could be justified by Sophoclean adage: “Wonders are many and none is more wonderful than man.”
Similarly, the works of Whitman propound the fact that man should be placed as the highest because of the greatest virtue possessed
by him which is reason. The rediscovery of humanistic values in Greek works during the 14 C which tried to define humanism is often
referred to as Renaissance humanism. In the classics of Greek literature man was glorified. During this age man tried to make his
earthly life a joyful experience instead of worrying about death.
In Christianity, humanism dwells on the change- over from scientific questions to the problems of moral life and religious imagination.
Erasmus, the prince of the modern humanists, emphasized on the dignity of man through Christ’s atonement and God’s grace. In Praise
of Folly, he criticized the corruption in the Church and insisted on the understanding of life. He also argued that true Christianity
should free itself from superstitions and dogmas of the society.
F.C.S. Schiller, a modern humanist, branded pragmatism as humanism. He emphasized that the highest task of the pragmatic humanism
is the service of man. In the contemporary world naturalistic humanism has become popular which is also called as scientific humanism.
This kind of humanism is against the existence of God and rejects the illusion of immortality. This philosophy holds that there is no
supernatural being and man is a wholly natural being whose well-being rests on his own efforts, not guided by any transcendent
support.
When we consider humanism in India, it is observed that various religions propound the idea of universal humanity like Sikhism,
Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam through the Saints and Bauls as their mouthpiece. For instance, Raja Ram Mohan Roy pleads for having
a universal religion to be embraced by the whole mankind. Mahatma Gandhi dedicated his life for the cause of the downtrodden. Also,
in the ancient Indian scriptures like Bhagvad-Gita it is mentioned that “….I am the life in all beings...” (Bhagavad-Gita 7-9). Here, the
emphasis is given to the mankind and God can be found in the inner self of man. Therefore, through the above discussions it can be
asserted that the central concern of humanism is man. Humanism opposes:
Naturalism and absolutism, accepting human experience as the primary concern for all. It rejects transcendence of the real, but it is not
skeptic like absolutism which considers that truth is unattainable to man. It believes that what is real is attainable and knowable for
man; thus rejecting skepticism and agnosticism.
Humanism believes that man is an evolutionary product of nature and a part of it, but his spirit is free. It believes in freedom of man
and rejects all kinds of determinism and fatalism. Man possesses genuine freedom of creative choice and action and, therefore, he is
the maker of his own destiny. It believes in ethics and morality that grounds all human values in earthly experience and relationship.
The position of man as a moral and spiritual subject gains significance in humanism. It assumes a quest for a just society which is
above all communalism, sectarianism and other ideas of narrowness. Though humanism rejects authority, sacrificial cult of ritualism
and theology, it is not anti- religion in character. It is religious because it does not reject values and morality in man’s life. (Nilesh
Arvind Tare 109).
The principles discussed above are the basic criteria for explaining the humanistic concerns in Whitman.
As far as Walt Whitman is concerned, he is his own prophet and the “true son of God”. He has been influenced by many religions like
Quakerism, Christianity, Hinduism but he was not a follower of any of them. His true religion was humanism. He was an intellectual
and a highly unorthodox poet.
Walt Whitman was a conscious artist and a profound original thinker. At the outset of his career he was considered a revolutionary
poet who believed that poetry has a function to perform, a mission to pursue. His view on poetry and poets has been repeatedly
explained by him in a number of passages in his preface and many of his prose works. He was to write a new kind of poetry for the
new world and this should be new in every way in subject matter, in form, in spirit, in its message, and in its style and diction. He
wanted to break away from the European style of writing. His innumerable attacks on Shakespeare and ‘other feudal’ poets of Europe
are well known. Although he recognized the importance of ‘past’ yet the dislike for European traditions continued to the end of his
life. He did not want anything from Europe to be repeated in America.
Whitman tried his best to create the new taste in his works and succeeded to a large extent in his effort. In his treatise A Backward
Glance O’er Travel’d Road,he has explained his attitude towards poetry which in not a pure art, but an art with a purpose. He asks his
readers not to consider Leaves of Grass as a mere literary work rather try to comprehend the meaning behind it. Whitman’s theory of
poetry shows two voices- the voice of the inspired Romantic critic for whom poetry is a divine gift for spiritual development, and the
voice of the utilitarian for whom poetry is an instrument of social and political reform. According to Whitman a poet should incorporate
the following tenets as defined in his preface of Leaves of Grass (1855):
The greatest poet hardly knows pettiness or triviality. If he breathes into anything that was before thought small it dilates with the
grandeur and life of the universe. He is a seer… he is individual… he is complete in himself. (CRE 713)
The most striking feature of Whitman’s poetry is his love for the average. His poetry consists of ‘everyday” life written for the common
reader. Whitman’s poetry is mystical in approach but his mysticism is not derived from the saints who appear to be completely
disgusted with the world of senses. Rather Whitman believed in transcendental form of mysticism and like Tagore makes man the
center of his poetic world. He believes that there is no God more divine than humans and also stresses on the equality of man and
woman, black and white etc. Although in his prose and poems he refers to “God”, “identity”, “soul”, “self” and similar terms used by
mystics, yet his essential efforts is to make the natural supernatural and not vice-versa. In one of his notes he wrote:
“There is nothing in the universe any more divine than man. All gathers to the worship of man- How awful, how beautiful a being-
How full of Gods is the world”.
Walt Whitman seems to incorporate the Upanishadic view regarding the knowledge of self and love for mankind. His poems explicit
the essential nature of man which is pure being, pure conscious and bliss. His knowledge of self is revealed by the following lines:
It is time to explain myself-let us stand up! Here he calling us to realize ourselves. One of the nation of many nations, the smallest the
same and the largest the same.
A Southerner as soon as a Northerner, a planter nonchalant and hospitable down by the Oconee I live.
A Yankee bound my own way ready for trade, my joints the limberest joints on earth
And the sternest joints on earth,
A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deerskin leggings, a Louisianian
Or Georgian,… (16: 5-8)
Here Whitman is meditating on the American self as a universal entity and is capable of assuming any guise without losing its essence.
In other words, one must to realize oneself and merge it into Divine without losing its own characteristics. Whitman, in the above lines,
treats Americans as containing multitudinous nature of the self. The poet further says that he is not of one nation but belongs to all
other nations. He is of the east and of the west; of north and of south; of the city as well as the countryside. It means that he belongs to
the whole universe. Therefore, it can be concluded that the sixteenth section of Song of Myself exposes Whitman’s view of the human
being. He recognized humanity as embracing many polarities, consisting of cultural, spiritual as well as biological. He also emphasizes
on the ethos of equality in America.
Whitman considered life and all of its components special in their own ways and thought of them as perfect whatever they were and
wherever they were. He stresses on the individuality and says that an individual should live with an open mind; should have willingness
to love others; and should remain non-judgmental.
In the last lines of the section 23, poet calls for a revolt against orthodoxy and conservatism and thus argues for the spiritual freedom
of the man. Here, he urges the individual to think with an open mind:
[…]this is the lexicographer, this the chemist, this made a grammar of the old cartouches,
These Mariners put the ship through dangerous unknown seas. This is the geologist, this works with the scalpel, and this is a
mathematician. Gentleman, to you the first honors always!
Your facts are useful, and they are not my dwelling,
I but enter by them to an area of my dwelling.
Less the reminders of properties told my words,
And more the reminders they of life untold, and of freedom and extrication.
And make short account of neuters and geldings, and favour men and women fully equipt,
And beat the gong of revolt, and stop with fugitives and them that plot and conspire”. (23: 51-52)
In the above passage, the poet expresses his happiness over the work done by the scientists and praises them a lot. But reality and
materialism is not the end of human life, there is lot more to be done and the physical body is only the way to prepare for the realization
of God. The poet argues that he would use science to achieve a better and fuller life for the soul. He longs for the eternal, who lies
beyond and there lies the real dwelling of man. This is the ‘life untold’ which becomes the real concern of the poet. The poet further
points out the main hurdle that comes in the way of spirituality that is the enslavement of man by traditions custom and orthodox
conventions. So, the poet calls for a free atmosphere so that man may realize his self and try to achieve union with the divine.
While analyzing the views of Humanism as comprehended by Whitman we arrive at an understanding that he displayed universal
outlook which embraces the whole mankind, transcending all the barriers. Whitman prophesizes that God – Man axis would be replaced
by Man – God axis because of this democratic faith. He believes that humanity should be elevated to the pedestral of divinity. Whitman
sees God in Man. He writes:
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass,
I find letters from God dropt in the strict, and everyone is signed by God’s name.(48: 87)
Therefore, the humanism of Whitman bases itself on their extreme faith in the Almighty.
Walt Whitman does not differentiate between good and evil. He also feels the pain and suffering of poor, criminals and slaves alike.
He identifies himself with all of these and claims that:
I am not the poet of goodness only. I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also.
What blurt is this about virtue and about vice? Evil propels me and reform of evil propels me, I stand indifferent.
My gait is no fault-finder’s or rejecter’s
gait.
I moisten the roots of all that has grown.
(22: 50)
The lines written above reveal the Whitman’s idea of social equality which never secludes any human being irrespective of colour,
creed, social status and deeds. Whitman argues that he is non-judgemental and does not consider himself an authority to judge about
the virtues or faults in the nature of human being. In the same line of thought Whitman says:
Undrape! you are not guilty to me, or stale nor discarded, I see through the broadcloth and gingham whether or not, And am around
tenacious, acquisitive, tireless, and cannot be shaken away.(7: 35)
Whitman becomes a mere spectator, and comments that he does not find anyone ‘guilty’ or degraded and treats all as equals. The ‘I’
in this section is the transcendent soul or the ‘Over-soul’ who is witness to all that goes on in the world, both good and evil. However,
the detachment of the poet is partial because he does not believe in withdrawal from worldly objects rather identifies him with them.
In other words it can be said that Whitman believes that the goodness persists in the mankind and eulogize it to the highest level. It is
pertinent to mention here that Whitman refers to wickedness as well and does not want to leave it out.
Whitman’s humanism is also spiritual in approach. His poetry contains new elements though he was influenced by great writers such
as Homer, Shakespeare and even his contemporaries like Carlyle and Coleridge and most significantly by Emerson. These writers
introduced him to ancient and modern mystics beginning with Plato and Plotinus. The emphasis on German Transcendentalism in the
works of Coleridge and Carlyle must surely have shaped Whitman’s mind. Because of these influences his humanism gives the message
of hope, cheerfulness, joy and courage. Whitman never complains of anything in his poetry but occasionally, he seems to imply that
the world of the senses is not the real world at all; it is only a poor substitute for the Real, the Ideal, the Transcendental. He says: “What
is a man anyhow? What am I? What are you”? Whitman’s humanism can be explained by the following line taken from his Preface:
“…. there is anything in the known universe more divine then men and women”. In these lines Whitman simply elevates men and
women to the level of divinity.
The Song of Myself depicts the concept of ‘Over-soul’ and its relation to the soul of man. Whitman writes:
Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the argument of the earth,
And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,
And I Know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,
And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers,
And that a Kelson of the creation is love,
And limitless are leaves stiff or dropping
in the fields,
And brown ants in the little wells
beneath them,
And mossy scabs of the worm fence, heap’d stones, elder, mullein and poke- weed. (5: 33)
In these lines Whitman talks about the result of the mystical union of soul with the ‘Over-soul’ that leads to peace, knowledge and
wisdom, far greater than any knowledge or bliss. At this point of time, the poet realizes that all the creations of God are equally sacred
and contain the same life-force. Here the poet is seen as a firm believer of universal camaraderie because he realizes that all men are
his brothers and all women are either his sisters or beloveds, and all of them are part of the one ‘Supreme Soul’. Whitman maintains
that all the creations of the universe whether significant or insignificant, holy or unholy, good or bad are equally valuable. This
discussion reveals that Whitman was a humanistic who treated all mankind as equal and claimed that the Divine Soul holds them
together.
Whitman also talks about acquiring true knowledge and wisdom through the course of mystical journey. Whitman stresses upon man’s
communion with nature for the eventual happiness of all mankind. Whitman says:
Have you reckon’d a thousand acres much? Have you recokon’d the earth much?
Have you practis’d so long to learn to
read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems? Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin all poems.
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter
them from yourself.” (2: 30)
These lines amply establish Whitman as one who urges men to step beyond the knowledge acquired by senses. As a mystic, he
emphasizes the significance of intuitive power as an ultimate source of knowledge. Whitman’s Song of Myself offers a perceptive
commentary on innumerable day to day activities of every man, glimpses of his everyday life which enable the poet to see and
comprehend the meaning of life and see it as a whole. The poet believes that he is not rooted to any particular place on the earth. He
belongs to everybody and to every place. He is as much as of the sky as of the earth. He embraces all the people on this earth irrespective
of gender, age, color or nationality. He stresses on the immortality of the human soul and says that the humans will never die or
degrade, although they are unaware of this fact. They are also immortal like the poet but they do not realize this truth. In another section
of the poem Song of Myself, the poet emphasizes the fact that his self expands till it embraces the whole humanity. The following lines
tend to show the immense diversity that the poet’s self attains:
And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them, and such as it is to be of these more or less I am, And of these one and all I
weave the song of myself (15:44)
Whitman as a poet sequesters himself into all the objects around him and absorbs everything into himself. The resultant is the poem
that becomes an offer at the altar of the divine:
In me the caresser of life wherever moving, backward as well as forward sluing,
To riches aside and junior bending, not a person, or object missing,
Absorbing all to myself and for this
song. (13: 40)
Walt Whitman, in this regard, says that all things are a part of God and, therefore, in his philosophy love for mankind is fundamentally
the love for God. Whitman’s cosmic consciousness embraces matter and spirit into one entity. He believes to surrender to the senses
and to celebrate them. The following lines echo this thought of Whitman:
I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,
The pleasures of heaven are with me and pains of hell are with me,
The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new
tongue. (21: 48)
Here, the poet sings the praise of the body and the soul. He believes that both soul and body are at the same level, i.e., equally pure
and holy. He says that both pleasure and pain are within him. In the same line of thought, the poet further says:
Agonies are one of my changes of garments,
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels; I myself become the wounded person,
My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe. (33: 67)
In these lines the Poet identifies himself with the suffering and the needy. He himself becomes the sufferer.
To conclude it can be observed that Whitman viewed humanity as the divine manifestation of God. According to him the whole world
is considered as a manifestation of God, not divorced, but intimately connected with Him. Therefore, it could also be concluded that
everything is contained and related to Him. He shows firm faith in God and believes in the conviction that God is the preserver and
creator as well as the giver of pain and death. The humanism of Whitman is not about preaching like a priest or theorizing about the
relationship of man and God, but simply a practical way to life.