Walt Whitman "Song of Myself" 1855/1881

Walt Whitman "Song of Myself" 1855/1881

1. Transmitting Experiences

   • Reference to Emerson's "transparent eyeball"

2. Symbolism

   • Image of the Woman
     • Emerson's transparent eyeball
       • Woman/Whitman is distant enough from situation to have perspective, whilst also being within the situation enough to have full knowledge.
       • 29th bather is INVISIBLE
         • "An unseen hand also pass'd over their bodies"
     • Sexual tones of section
       • Trancendence
         • Moment of two becoming one but still being separate
     • Begins with woman's voice
       • "Twenty-eight years of womanly life and all so lonesome"
       • changes to Whitman's voice
         • "Where are you off to, lady? for I see you"
         • Homoeroticism
           • The beards of the young mean glisten'd with wet, it ran from their long/hair,/Little streams pass'd over their bodies."
             • Importance of enjambment - break between "long" and "hair"
               • Sexual tension/suspense
           • OR representation of all humans coming together in communion
   • Image of the Slave
     • Later turn to equality
       • "The bride unrumples her white dress.../The opium-eater reclines.../The prostitute draggles her shawl.../The President holding a cabinet"
         • Placing of characters together suggests a equal and democratic society.
           • Whitman talks for all of society/ Uses himself as a vessel for society
             • "I understand the large heart of heroes"
             • "I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the/wounded person
             • Is this an outrageous & skimmed representation?
             • Establishing boundaries between self & the world
     • Brotherly attitude
     • Does not blatantly refer to wider issues
       • Anecdotal & Democratic
     • "The runaway slave"
       • "The" not "A" suggests no specificity
     • "I had him sit next me at table, my fire-lock lean'd in the corner"
       • Abrupt ending to the tale
         • Unresolved
         • Real or Made up??
       • Is fire arm protection against or for slave??
         • Unanswered questions

3. The Individual/The Self

   • "I celebrate myself, and sing myself"
     • Use of the name Walt Whitman but still professes to be a character of Whitman's poem.
       • Continuous use of "I"
   • Democracy
     • Individual is necessary for a democratic society to flourish
       • Heavily links to Thoreau's "Resistance to Civil Government"
         • "It divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine."
     • Grass image (section 6)
       • "Or I guess the grass is itself a child.../Sprouting alike in broad zines and narrow zones,/Growing among black folks as among white."
         • Nature grows anywhere
           • God is prominent in Nature - God as an image of democracy
           • Regeneration and life cycle in Nature
       • Whitman has to explain the symbol
         • inability to break things down to essential principles
       • Graves of Civil War
         • "I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young and old men?...and the offspring taken soon/out of their laps
           • Regeneration
   • Poem begins in the middle of Whitman's life - trying figure out for himself?