While reading “Song of Myself,” I could not help but to connect this text to one of my favorite books, Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. In this story, the author’s newly adopted religion, Bokononism, advises its followers not to indulge themselves in granfalloons, which are essentially meaningless classifications marked by human ideologies (such as national […]
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Song of Myself: Distinction and “Perpetual Transfer”
Reading Song of Myself I tried to make notes for each section to try and decipher some kind of pattern in the poem’s progression. Each section at first seemed to be more or less self-contained units of commentary, praise, observation, what have you on a broad subject, flowing into the next section organically. The first ten sections […]
The Common Soul and Individual Perception
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” (188) From the very first stanza, Whitman makes it clear that the narrator of “Song of Myself” is not an individual, but a common voice for the people; he is “of old […]
Walt Whitman: Blog Post #2
“I am not the poet of goodness only, I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also…I moisten the roots of all that has grown” (209). In “Song of Myself” Whitman creates an all-inclusive perspective that unites him with all women and men in their positive and negative qualities. Through various descriptions of the […]
Moving Conventions Forward
In Whitman’s Preface to Leaves of Grass, he calls our attention to the poet’s role in America. He says at one point “Whatever stagnates in the flat of custom or obedience or legislation he never stagnates. Obedience does not master him, he masters it.” For Whitman, the poet’s work pulls society forward, drawing out the […]
Whitman’s Preface and Understanding Human Experience
“The land and sea, the animals, fishes, and birds, the sky of heaven and the orbs, the forests, mountains, and rivers, are not small themes … but folks expect of the poet to indicate more than the beauty and dignity which always attach to dumb real objects … they expect him to indicate the path […]
Whitman on the “Soul”
Whitman’s preface to “Leaves of Grass” outlines some of the driving forces behind his poetic voice. Certain ideas are revisited throughout the preface in order to emphasize their power and importance in the process of creating and reading “great poetry.” Among these is Whitman’s admiration for the divinity within human beings, which he claims is […]
The Common People within the Preface to Leaves of Grass
While reading the preface to “Leaves of Grass” I found myself repeatedly underlining sentences that were just pleasurable to read. Already, I think I may be beginning to understand why Whitman has had such a lasting legacy. The way he weaves together words is absolutely enjoyable. Throughout the preface to “Leaves of Grass” Whitman spends […]
The Modern Pastoral?
Looking at the three poets— Whitman, Williams, and O’Hara—together in the context of the same poetic tradition, similar themes become apparent: a deliberately crafted local idiom, a celebration of the immediate, a semi-pastoral mode. However, more importantly, it is the digressions on such themes, the different types of iterations that make their relationship interesting. Each […]
Whitman Leaves of Grass Introduction
At the start of Whitman’s introduction to Leaves of Grass, he acknowledges America’s greatness in terms of the nation’s capability of producing poetry. “The Unite States themselves,” Whitman writes, “are essentially the greatest poem” (5). While I admire Whitman’s awe of this country in terms of its power to produce art, I found that after reading […]
