Song of Myself

Before diving into the analysis, read the complete poem:

Song of Myself by Walt Whitman

Find out more about other works in this genre: Transcendentalism - Study Guide
The exact opposite philosophy is found in the genre: Dark Romanticism - Study Guide

Quite simply, Whitman's poem is an unabashed celebration all about himself, exemplifying the Transcendental Movement to a "T." The poem had no title when first published in his collection, Leaves of Grass (1855). It was called A Poem of Walt Whitman, an American until he changed it in 1881 to Song of Myself, a reflection of the work's broader implications: that the divine spirit resides within all of us, and that we have knowledge about ourselves that "transcends" the world around us. We see all, are part of everything, and condemn nothing.

Whitman shares his belief that every object in the universe, no matter how small, has a natural and spiritual self that contains part of the infinite universe. Whitman has great respect for the mystical union of his self and his soul with God (the absolute self). He is inseparable from his poems, he is his poems, which makes for a somewhat confusing, yet exhilarating experience for his readers, establishing Whitman as a foremost poet of the ages.

Universal "I"

Though the poem is about the poet's self, he universalizes the concept of "I" to include all of our selves in his experiences. It's this simplistic beauty of inclusivity and at the same time its complexity that make this poem one of the most celebrated.

Symbols

Whitman uses symbols extensively to illustrate various states of "self." Perfume represents individuals, houses and rooms represent civilization, the atmosphere represents the universal. Grass is the central symbol to explain that the divinity is in the ordinary: "the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation" (section 6) and that nothing really dies: "The smallest sprout shows there is really no death" (section 6). He reused these symbols consistently throughout his work, even beyond Leaves of Grass, as in When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd.

Experiment of Words

Whitman uses colloquialisms to merge spiritual and natural concepts and to discover the joy he experiences through his senses (e.g.: "The sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to the eddies of the wind," (section 2) "Loaf with me on the grass," (section 5) and "not contain'd between my hat and boots") (section 6). Whitman says he was "form'd from this soil" and refers to "talkers," "trippers and askers" (section 4) as wasting their time intellectualizing, when they could be enjoying simple things like watching a blade of grass. The colloquial expressions give Whitman's poem an accessibility and charm that is both obscure and wandering, yet we want it to be within our grasp so we can celebrate right along with him.

Imagery

Whitman includes seemingly random and vivid descriptions of elements in nature that collectively unify the spiritual ideas in the poem. "The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless," "the play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag," and "Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine" all convey the energy emanating from nature and its spiritual effect on the self.

There are three main themes in Whitman's epic poem:

Section 1 - The famous opening declaration establishing the poem's central premise of celebrating the self.

Section 2 - Whitman's philosophy of independent thinking and personal experience over received knowledge.

Section 4 - The transcendent self remains unchanged by external events.

Section 4 - Whitman's passive observation as a way of understanding.

Section 43 - The infinite scope of existence and the self's place in eternity.

Section 49 - Whitman's fearlessness in the face of death, consistent with Transcendentalist beliefs.

External Resources

• The Walt Whitman Archive
• Transcendentalism, an American Philosophy
• Leaves of Grass: the cornerstone of modern poetry
• Walt Whitman's Notebooks and Poetry: the Sweep of the Universe
• Whitman Timeline

Related Content on American Literature

• Biography and Works by Walt Whitman
• Transcendentalism - Study Guide
• Dark Romanticism - Study Guide
• D.H. Lawrence's chapter about Whitman in Studies in Classic American Literature
• Civil War Stories, Poems & Books
• American History in Literature

Whitman's obsession writing about "self" was affected dramatically by the American Civil War and particularly, Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865. During the War he treated wounded soldiers in Washington, DC army hospitals. Though he had spent years reorganizing and adding works to his epic collection, Leaves of Grass, publishing six very different editions in all (1855-1892), he began writing about events of the War and its impact.

Described as impressionist sketches of Civil War scenes using words rather than colors, this profound shift in his writing style is best exemplified in two of his finest poems, tributes to Abraham Lincoln after his assassination in 1865. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd and O Captain! My Captain!, an extended metaphor with conventional meter and rhyme, that's often recited and inspired many generations. His poem, Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day, was printed on Lincoln mourning ribbons with the closing: "God save the Union and our Martyr."

After the War, Whitman worked at the Departments of Interior and Justice, where he served as a clerk until his first stroke in 1873, which left him partially paralyzed. He lived almost twenty more years, continuing to suffer health problems. Though he continued revising his epic Leaves of Grass (last edition the same year as his death: 1892), he produced two other major poems during this period: Passage to India (1871) and Prayer of Columbus (1874).