By "harbor" I assume you're referring to the thoughts and feelings the poet holds within himself. If that's the case, then the main thought/idea Walt Whitman harbors in "Song of Myself" is the notion of the radically plural individual. For most of the poem, Whitman embarks on an incredibly expansive poetic journey, and he strives to incorporate as much of life (and specifically American life) as possible. As such, he presents a variety of scenes from all different walks of life, both high and low, common and uncommon, and uses these scenes to inform his theory of individual identity. Identity, Whitman claims, is not a static, singular concept, but rather an expansive, lively, continuously changing and at times contradictory idea. As such, he tries to incorporate a vast tapestry of life in order to give voice to his pluralistic (some might even say "democratic") vision of the self and the individual. This theme of the plural self is the heart of Whitman's poem, and so it is likely the most significant idea that he harbors throughout his verse.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
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...
-
There are a plethora of rules that Jonas and the other citizens must follow. Again, page numbers will vary given the edition of the book tha...
-
The only example of simile in "The Lottery"—and a particularly weak one at that—is when Mrs. Hutchinson taps Mrs. Delacroix on the...
-
A good thesis statement presents a claim (an interpretive stance on a story that can be defended using textual evidence) and is a position w...
-
The given two points of the exponential function are (2,24) and (3,144). To determine the exponential function y=ab^x plug-in the given x an...
-
What does the hot air balloon symbolize? To the Assad son who buys the hot air balloon, it symbolizes a kind of whimsy that he can afford. B...
-
The play Duchess of Malfi is named after the character and real life historical tragic figure of Duchess of Malfi who was the regent of the ...
-
Allie’s baseball mitt is extremely important to Holden in The Catcher in the Rye. It is a symbol of Allie since it was important to his brot...
No comments:
Post a Comment