Analysis Song of Myself
Abstract:Song of Myself is a poem by Walt Whitman that is included in his work Leaves of Grass. It has been credited as \the core of Whitman?s poetic vision.\It was the concentration of Leaves of Grass,confirming its epic aspect and Whitman?s unique perspective.Fundamentally,Song of Myself is a song of freedom,democracy,equality and love.It shows poet?s philosophical and religious thinking of life and cosmic inventory.Also there is marked transcendentalism in Song of Myself.It incarnates the process of mysterious experience of transcendentalist.
Key word:Song of Myself transcendentalism
In the early half of nineteenth century, America?s economy developed rapidly. However, as a independent country, America?s culture, especially literature was still under the shadow of Britain literature and did not establish its own democratic literature. Meanwhile, Transcendentalists advocated individuality.With this historical demand, Whitman desired to express the special age,The poem was first published without sections as the first of twelve untitled poems in the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. The first edition was published by Whitman at his own expense.In the second (1856) edition, Whitman used the title \Whitman, an American,\which was shortened to \Whitman\for the third (1860) edition.The poem was divided into fifty-two numbered sections for the fourth (1867) edition and finally took on the title \
The poem is written in Whitman?s signature free verse style. Whitman, who praises words \that can appeal to a mass audience.Critics have noted a strong Transcendentalist influence on the poem. In section 32, for instance, Whitman expresses a desire to \to find divinity in the insects.In addition to this romanticism, the poem seems to anticipate a kind of realism that would only become important in United States literature after the American Civil War.
In the poem, Whitman emphasizes an all-powerful \not be limited to or confused with the person of the historical Walt Whitman. The persona described has transcended the conventional boundaries of self: \birth with the new-washed babe .... and am not contained between my hat and boots\several other quotes from the poem that makes it apparent that Whitman does not consider the narrator to represent a single individual. Rather, he seems to be narrating for all:\belonging to me as good belongs to you.\barleycorn less/and the good or bad I say of myself I say of them\and John B. Mason give interpretations as to the meaning of the \in the poem. Cook writes that the key to understanding the poem lies in the \of self\(typified by Whitman) as \individual and universal,\Mason discusses \reader?s involvement in the poet?s movement from the singular to the cosmic\\serves as an ideal, yet, in contrast to traditional epic poetry, this identity is one of the common people rather than a hero.
As the point of view in the poem,?I?or?Myself?has three-level significance: in its most limited significance is Whitman himself; if in its largest and most frequent sense, it is generic and representative of all men; if in its universal meaning, it, as ?Whitman?s soul?, is only a
fragment of?the world soul?or the oversoul, as Emerson called is mystically and pantheistically related to all other souls.”While Song of Myself is crammed with significant detail, there are three key episodes that must be examined. The first of these is found in the sixth section of the poem. A child asks the narrator “What is the grass?” and the narrator is forced to explore his own use of symbolism and his inability to break things down to essential principles. The bunches of grass in the child?s hands become a symbol of the regeneration in nature. But they also signify a common material that links disparate people all over the United States together: grass, the ultimate symbol of democracy, grows everywhere. In the wake of the Civil War the grass reminds Whitman of graves: grass feeds on the bodies of the dead. Everyone must die eventually, and so the natural roots of democracy are therefore in mortality, whether due to natural causes or to the bloodshed of internecine warfare. While Whitman normally revels in this kind of symbolic indeterminacy, here it troubles him a bit. “I wish I could translate the hints,” he says, suggesting that the boundary between encompassing everything and saying nothing is easily crossed.
There are many \some favorites. Two other such topics we typically read about are nature and death. The two can be discussed separately or they can be related to each other. Walt Whitman, a lover of nature, tackled these subjects in Song of Myself from Leaves of Grass. \of life and God. Whitman loved everything imaginable about nature. He loved people, animals, and himself. Throughout this extensive poem, Whitman mentions \people (Indians), \another and all people are equal.He?s Song of Myself is, on the most basic descriptive level, a really long poem. Whitman is clearly a poet with a lot to say, or at least with a lot of different ways to say it. He meanders from the micro to the macro, from atoms to the whole earth.
“I am a poet of Body and I am a poet of Soul”, he is also is a poet of himself and a poet of America. He roots himself among American men as a representative of them, since“every atom belonging to me as good belongs to me” and “My tongue, every atom of my blood form?d from this soil, this air”. He is just “a kosmos, of Mnhattan the son”. Thus, “what I assume you should assume”. He assumes self-consciousness, and that is what Americans assume, too.In the sixth section, Whitman eulogizes the grass as “a frag of his disposition” and “the handkerchief of the Lord”. The grass, one of all living things, stands for life and common Americans. Thus, “in all people, I see myself” and “The good or bad I say of myself and I say of them”. What he assumes—health, vigour, strength confidence as well as self-consciousness they assume, too. In other words, the poem is filled with American national awareness.Whitman brings philosophical significance to the most simple objects and actions, reminding America that every sight, sound, taste, and smell can take on spiritual importance to the fully aware and healthy individual. In the first cantos, he says, \Throughout the rest of the poem though, he continues this pattern. He constantly uses the images of body and spirit together, bringing us to a better understanding of his true conception of spirituality.
In my opinion,Song of myself was the concentration of Leaves of Grass,confirming its epic aspect and Whitman unique perspective.Fundamentally,Song of Myself is a song of freedom,democracy,equality and love.It shows poet?s philosophical and religious thinking of life and cosmic inventory.Also there is marked transcendentalism in Song of myself.It incarnates the process of mysterious experience of transcendentalist.Whitman roots his thought and his poem in
the soil of America to explore the innermost being—self-consciousness of himself and Americans. In Song of Myself, he appraises and emphasizes significance and awareness of individual and the whole nation. Therefore, in the author?s eyes, Song of Myself is a psalm of self-consciousness.However, the author thinks“I”or“Myself”in the poem just means Whitman himself and a representative of all Americans, not all of men.Besides, Whitman?s soul, his awareness is a fagment of American soul,but not related to all other souls. Bibliography
[1]吴伟仁：《美国文学史及选读》，北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2013 年。 [2]谭丽华：《新编美国文学赏析》，贵州：贵州大学出版社，2011年。 [3]WIKIPEDIA
Analysis Song of Myself
