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Comparing Men And Women In Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself

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In section 21 of Walt Whitman’s Song of myself Whitman illustrates the idea of connectivity between men and women, and the prodigal love between Earth and Humanity. In order to show how he connects men and women Whitman declares, “ And I say it is as great to be a women as it is a man” (Whitman p.946). In this Whitman is stating that men and women are just as good as the other in his mind. Not having enough love in the world was another one of Whitman’s thoughts in this section when he states that, “We have had ducking and depreciating about enough _/ I show that size is only development “ (Whitman p.946). Here Whitman is illustrating the lack people have of the nature and people around them. Another one of Whitman’s ideas in this section is that all people are alike and are therefore …show more content…

are you the president?_/ It is a trifle, they will more than arrive there every one, and still pass on” (Whitman p.946). In this it is evident that Whitman believes that people's achievements over others won't have any value in the end, because everyone is born to die. Switching gears Whitman goes on to use intense imagery, repetition and personification to depict all of Earth’s beautiful aspects. To express Earth’s beauty Whitman writes, “ press close their bare-bosomed night- press close magnetic nourishing night!_/Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue! ..._/rich apple-blossomed earth!_/Smile, for your lover comes” ( Whitman p.946). Here Whitman is using personification to give the Earth feminine attributes to show that the Earth is loveable. Whitman also believes that the Earth is one factor that connects everyone together because the Earth gives love, and Whitman thinks that love is what connects everyone together. To illustrate this belief Whitman writes, “ Prodigal, you have given me love-therefore I to you give love!_/O unspeakable passionate love” ( Whitman p.946)! Whitman shows his love

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802 Words | 4 Pages

In Walt Whitman’s “song of myself”, there is many reverences to himself. I am going to pick out some of the references to himself and explain what I believe that they mean to me. On the first line of the poem, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself” (Whitman 1330). Which says to me that Walt Whitman is proud out his accomplishments that he has achieved thought out his life. Even the accomplishments that were viewed as not good or not worthy of praise.

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560 Words | 3 Pages

If you cannot put control to your wants and needs, you have no strong state of priorities. “Surrounded, detached in measureless oceans of space, ceaselessly musing, venturing.” Whitman is making a compare and contrast between the two lives you can choose in life. “Surrounded, detached in measures oceans of space. . . ”

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441 Words | 2 Pages

In a modern prose poem,“When Walt Whitman Was A Little Girl” by M.C. Biegner, Walt Whitman, a nineteenth-century male poet, Whitman is described as an genderfluid character as the poem traces his transition from a little girl to a grown man. Because of this gender ambiguity the pronouns used to describe Walt shift throughout the poem from she to he as Whitman matures. The poem addresses the expected conformity attached to gender stereotypes by using Walt Whitman’s gender fluidity to present a contrast to these stereotypes. By imagining Walt Whitman as a “little girl,” Biegner encourages the reader to examine the existence of gender fluidity by breaking down the gendered stereotypes and through exemplifying traits of both genders in Walt. This analysis of Whitman is not distant to who he really was as a writer.

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1154 Words | 5 Pages

The idea of everyone being equal with each other is vital to the success of the community. Whitman’s notion of equality suggest that everyone plays a vital role in society, even the poor or the disabled. Because of this, they should all be equal as their decisions, judgement and perception affect the community in the same way. The “I” within the poem expands across all nations, all workers and all races. Whitman furthermore goes on to explain the inclusiveness he mentions throughout the poem.

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170 Words | 1 Pages

Based on what I read, in the text on “Song of Myself” I believe that Whitman is expressing the individual’s place in the world by whatever means they were meant to do. Whitman does not compare himself to others and other’s to himself. Whitman word’s sounds like he believes that all people are equal and the same. In the text of line 16 he says he is old of young and foolish as much wise.

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525 Words | 3 Pages

It is strange to notice Whitman contradicting himself in the poem. He eulogizes self and tells others to do so too in first stanza line 2, “and what I assume you shall assume”. Later, contradicting himself by talking about oneness and unity in first stanza line 3, “for every atom belonging to you belongs to me” (Whitman). That line means that we are all the same. It is rather bold of him to make a statement because of the turmoil that went around at that time.

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682 Words | 3 Pages

In this section, Whitman claims to be the poet of men and women, but quickly turns to say that "there is nothing greater than the mother of men". This line places both men and their mothers at the top of the hypothetical populous hierarchy.

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1415 Words | 6 Pages

The water of Whitman's work parallels the wind of Frost’s—both embody the prehistoric treadings of darkness, establishing the essence behind existence as an indifferent and untamed gust or an everlasting immensity of water. However, the fundamental divide between the ideologies of Frost and Whitman forms as Whitman poses no initial movement or direction of the water, however pointless these may be, and given no intrinsic purpose as prescribed to the wind of Frost’s poem. This is an entirely different preface to humanity, as it establishes a similarly “pointless” but wholly purposeless nature of existence. This seemingly small variation—purposed pointlessly or purposed not at all—between the poems poses a dichotomy between Frost’s and Whitman's interpretations of humanity. In “Had I the Choice,” the torch beholden to humanity is the only light, and that light is the only movement and upheaval the water ever faces, whether it be with direction or without it.

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1633 Words | 7 Pages

Throughout his poem, he constantly talks about the importance of coming together and merging. Whitman says, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (Whitman 1). On the surface, this quote may appear to illustrate that Whitman thinks highly of himself, but it is more than this. The last part of this quote emphasizes that we are all connected and even though we are all individuals, we should not forget that we are connected to one another. Whitman also says, “Urge and urge and urge, Always the procreant urge of the world.

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2353 Words | 10 Pages

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself “And what I assume you shall assume, “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” A groan escaped my lips as Mary’s polished voice began to recite the first three lines of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself. She had almost the entire poem memorized, and would begin to quote certain lines when they pertained to a situation, or when she was just trying to annoy me. She fell in love with the poem when she was in the eighth grade after doing some American poet project for her English class.

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1382 Words | 6 Pages

They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth. (Whitman,

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471 Words | 2 Pages

By this, he means that bodies are not who a person is. Bodies merely are the outward appearance of a deeper being. Whitman shows readers that the soul of the body is what makes the body beautiful, and that a body is beautiful because it is the casing of the soul. This message can also be seen in the lines, “You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the soul”.

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1312 Words | 6 Pages

Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” employs a contemplative speaker to develop its theme, which implores the reader to look deeper into their perceptions and search for further meaning than what is on the surface. Whitman uses grass as a subject, which later morphs into death and rebirth, but his message remains consistent: the nature of the world and its inhabitants is complex, and that complexity deserves attention. His speaker, who appears to be a reflection of Whitman himself, directs his questioning towards himself and to the inanimate, instead of to the audience, and thereby creates a quiet and rhetorical tone. Despite the subject’s later turn towards death, he maintains the same tone throughout, focusing on the same respect and curiosity regardless of the subject

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896 Words | 4 Pages

In fact, the first two lines of part two of this poem read as follows: “The love of the body of man or woman balks account, the body itself balks account, That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.” (1-2) However, Whitman then continues to describe the perfection of man in great detail, in such a way that evokes a sense of longing, just like the gaze of the speaker lingers as he watches this man pass

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1125 Words | 5 Pages

Whitman 's idea of equality is so strong that he even devotes the very first lines of Song of Myself to it. He

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