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Walt WhitmanA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
There is an argument to be made that the nature of “Song of Myself” defies cohesive analysis. In his own words, Whitman sets out to be the “voice” of every member of society, every person who has ever lived in the past and will ever live in the future (Section 24). When this philosophy is put into poetic practice, the result is an almost schizophrenic text, a poem in a constant state of change and tonal shift. Like the United States of his day (and our own), Whitman’s poetic vision seems divided against itself, even as it welcomes and embraces its contradictions.
Some sections of “Song of Myself,” for example, stand alone. They describe an isolated story or scene (a vignette) which ends as neatly as it begins. Others meander and bleed from one part into the next, meta-poetically reenacting Whitman’s resistance to the “talkers” who obsess over beginnings and ends (Section 3). Naturally, in his poem, Whitman sometimes defies expected poetic structure by breezing right past section breaks (a good example of this can be seen in Sections 27-29, which all center loosely on touch).
This diversity in structural form is reflected in other areas too. Themes are revisited, but from different angles and in different lights.
By Walt Whitman
A Glimpse
A Glimpse
Walt Whitman
America
America
Walt Whitman
A Noiseless Patient Spider
A Noiseless Patient Spider
Walt Whitman
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
Walt Whitman
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
Walt Whitman
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Walt Whitman
For You O Democracy
For You O Democracy
Walt Whitman
Hours Continuing Long
Hours Continuing Long
Walt Whitman
I Hear America Singing
I Hear America Singing
Walt Whitman
I Sing the Body Electric
I Sing the Body Electric
Walt Whitman
I Sit and Look Out
I Sit and Look Out
Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
O Captain! My Captain!
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night
Walt Whitman
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
Walt Whitman
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
Walt Whitman
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