Essay On Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself

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Whitman 's "Song of Myself"

I chose a stanza from Whitman’s“Song of Myself”, a distended mixture of memoir, account, and poetic consideration. Whitman is a master of symbols and crafty observation Whitman uses short precise drawn scenes to apply his craft. My Stanza is the second.

“Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes,
I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it,
The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.”

. "Houses and rooms are full of perfume," Whitman says. "Perfumes" are symbols of other individuals, their ‘selves” to be exact. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that the “Houses and rooms” are a symbol of society. The houses being cities and the rooms being the buildings within. Furthermore, He needs the reader to understand the importance of …show more content…

The power in this stanza comes fromWhitman himself as he attempts to demonstrate that he embodies the universe while holding an individual place there as well. Attracted to the concept of an "Oversoul," or the soul that is linked to all souls on the planet, for him, a "remote experience" is not possible. All people are united by their communal experience of natural life.
Whitman 's particular style of writing has come to be known as "free verse.” The designation implies "a poem with no regular form or meter." If that is indeed the definition, "Song of Myself" fully fills those shoes. Moreover, with the poems loose structure, persuasive underlying rhythms, the multiple themes and ever-changing narration, Whitman uses groundbreaking techniques to bring harmony to what one would think could not be