ENGLISH 10

Song of Myself
JEROM N. CAWAGAS, LPT
Teacher of English 10
By the end of this lesson, you are able to:

• explain how a selection may be influenced by

culture, history, environment, or other factors

• explain how the elements of poetry build its

theme.

• use reflexive and intensive pronouns

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
WALT WHITMAN

•Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, near

Huntington, Long Island, New York. On July 4, 1855, the
first edition of Leaves of Grass, the volume of poems that
for the next four decades would become his life's work,
was placed on sale.

•Although some critics treated the volume as a joke and

others were outraged by its unprecedented mixture of
mysticism and earthiness, the book attracted the attention
of some of the finest literary intelligences. His poetry
slowly achieved a wide readership in America and in
England, where he was praised by Swinburne and
Tennyson. (D. H. Lawrence later referred to Whitman as
the "greatest modern poet, and" the greatest of Americans.
 Whitman suffered a stroke in 1873 and was forced to retire to Camden, New
Jersey, where he would spend the last twenty years of his life. There he
continued to write poetry, and in 1881 the seventh edition of Leaves of Grass
was published to generally favorable reviews.
 
 However, the book was soon banned in Boston on the grounds that it was
obscene literature. In January 1892 the final edition of Leaves of Grass
appeared on sale, and Whitman's life work was complete.

 He died two months later on the evening of March 26, 1892, and was buried
four days afterward at Harleigh Cemetery in Camde.
 Section 1, Song of Myself

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.
 Interpretation of Section 1
• Whitman states what he's going to do in the poem: celebrate himself. This
practice might seem a little arrogant, but we'll just go with it. (It turns out,
that he's celebrating not only himself, but all of humanity.)
• He lays out some of his ground rules: we're going to believe ("assume")
whatever he believes. At another level, we're going to "take on" whatever
roles or personalities the speaker takes on. (This is another definition of the
word "assume.")
• Whitman must have learned to share as a tyke in the sandbox: he offers up
the atoms of his body as our own.
• He introduces another character: his "soul." In this poem, the speaker and
his soul are two slightly different things.
• So, Whitman hangs out with his soul, and they look at a blade of summer
grass. (The title of the poetry collection to which this poem belongs is
Leaves of Grass.)

• Whitman describes the air as perfume and says he could get

drunk on it, but he won't let himself.

• He wants to get naked and go to the riverbank. He is in love with the air.

• If you think these images sound kind of erotic, just you wait. There's a
reason why Whitman was considered scandalous in his day
 Section 6, Song of Myself

A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;

How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, A scented gift and remembrancer

designedly dropt,
Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may
see and remark, and say Whose?

Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the
same.
 Section 6, Song of Myself

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It maybe you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them, I would have loved them,
It maybe you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out
of their mothers' laps,

And here you are the mothers' laps.

This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers,
Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.
O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues,
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.
I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their
laps.
What do you think has become of the young and old men?
And what do you think has become of the women and
chil- dren?
They are alive and well somewhere,
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at
the end to arrest it,
And ceas'd the moment life appear'd.
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
 Interpretation of Section 6

• This whole section is about grass.

• A child asked him what the grass was, and he couldn't answer, except
to guess that grass must be the symbol or "flag" of our hopeful nature.
Green is the color of hope.
• Or, it could be like God's handkerchief, just a little something to
remember him by.
• Or, it could be the child of all the other plants.
• Or, it could be a "hieroglyphic," a kind of writing that symbolizes the
equality of all people and things. After all, the grass grows the same
everywhere, and for everyone. (Or so he thought. Shmoop's lawn in
California doesn't do so well…)
• Or, it could be like "hair" of graves. This line seems pretty unexpected.
The idea is that things are being born and dying so often that all grass
must be covering some kind of grave. More generally, the soil itself is a
"grave" that everyone returns to eventually.
 Interpretation of Section 6

• Whitman thinks about what kinds of people might have been buried in
the soil beneath him, whether they were young men, mothers, or small
children who died too soon

• The grass comes from the mouths of dead people, like so many
"uttering tongues." He wishes he could translate what they were saying.

• Finally, he decides that people don't ever fully disappear, perhaps

because we all belong to the same web of life, and that death itself is
not such a bad thing.
 Interpretation of Section 6

• Whitman thinks about what kinds of people might have been buried in
the soil beneath him, whether they were young men, mothers, or small
children who died too soon

• The grass comes from the mouths of dead people, like so many
"uttering tongues." He wishes he could translate what they were saying.

• Finally, he decides that people don't ever fully disappear, perhaps

because we all belong to the same web of life, and that death itself is
not such a bad thing.
 Section 51, Song of Myself

The past and present wilt—I have fill'd them, emptied them.
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.
Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.
Who has done his day's work? who will soonest be through with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me?
Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?
 Interpretation of Section 51
• He's only going to stay another minute, so he'd better speak
honestly before he snuffs out his evening candle and goes to
bed.
• Here is one of the poem's most famous and representative lines:
"Do I contradict myself? Very well then . . . . I contradict
myself; I am large . . . . I contain multitudes."
• In analytic philosophy (the traditional philosophy practiced in
England and the US), contradicting yourself is a thing to avoid
at all costs. Whitman embraces contradiction. He is large
enough to contain contradictory things.
• The day is ending, and he wants to know who will be done with
dinner to take a walk with him.
• We're running out of time to talk with him. He has been doing
all the talking, and we'd better speak up fast before he leaves