Monday, January 27, 2014

Analyze how "Song of Myself" is the most representative American poem. What makes it democratic?

"Song of Myself" is democratic in its embrace of all people. Whitman's "I" is a representative "I" that stands for everyone. It is inclusive, as democracy is inclusive. As the speaker says:


For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

While Whitman's "I" is universal, it is also particularly American. Whitman locates himself in the United States and references this country as what made him what he is:


Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same


and



My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air ...



He shows the spirit of democracy in the idea he repeats over and over that one should be thinking for oneself and making one's own decisions rather than being guided by an upper class of people who are presumed to know better:


You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.


In part 15, he offers a long description and embrace of all of America, of all people in the country, whatever their situation. A snippet is below:



The quadroon girl is sold at the auction-stand, the drunkard nods by the bar-room stove,
The machinist rolls up his sleeves, the policeman travels his beat, the gate-keeper marks who pass ...


He ends the list by saying:


And such as it is to be of these more or less I am,
And of these one and all I weave the song of myself.


It is particularly American and democratic to see oneself as one with and a part of all people in the society, not as divided into rigid social classes that separate people into groups.


This is a bit of an opinion question, but I will give you some ideas to run with. The entire point of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is to celebrate one's self, and one's individuality. At the beginning of the poem, instead of calling upon a muse to help him write like other writers of his time, he calls upon himself. He only relies on himself, and everything in the poem comes from how he himself sees and interacts with the world around him.
This is the ultimate expression of freedom, and that is arguably the number one thing that America was founded upon: freedom (more pointedly the freedom of wealthy Christian white men). He isn't just speaking of his own freedom, though.

He sets out to expand the boundaries of the self to include, first, all fellow Americans, then the entire world, and ultimately the cosmos.

The poem itself shows evidence that Whitman embraced people of all races, genders, sexual preferences, and creeds, which, again, is the basis of democracy.

I am the poet of the Body and I am poet of the soulI am the poet of the woman the same as the manIn the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass.

In Whitman's view, everyone is equal, and they should all have an equal say in their future. This democratic worldview is what America was built on.
However, it is important to note that this American ideal has traditionally only applied to non-marginalized communities, specifically Christian land-owning white men. There has historically been a gap between America's democratic principles of freedom and equality and its problematic history, namely with slavery, racism, and sexism.
http://www.literary-articles.com/2013/11/whitmans-cocept-of-democracy.html

https://iwp.uiowa.edu/whitmanweb/en/writings/song-of-myself/section-1

No comments:

Post a Comment

Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?

In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...