45 pages • 1 hour read
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.
In Section 24, Whitman declares his intent to be the voice of many (“Through me many long dumb voices, / Voices of the interminable generations”). He positions himself as a spokesperson of not only the American people, but all of humanity, past, present, and future. Reflecting the weight Whitman places on physicality and the human body, organs of speaking and breathing—the mechanisms which produces sound—find special significance in “Song of Myself.”
Early in the poem, Whitman links his poetic voice with the American-ness of his tongue (“My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air,” Section 1). There, the poet’s physical tongue is identified as an essential tool of his poetry, but Whitman uses the word in other senses too. For example, in Section 21 he declares his intent to translate all of human experience “into a new tongue,” this time using “tongue” as a synonym for “language.”
But to produce sound, air is needed too. Whitman also references the lungs and breathing as powerhouses of poetic composition. He marvels at “the smoke” of his own breath, his “respiration and inspiration,” the beating of his heart, “the passing of blood and air through [his] lungs” (Section 2).
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
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection