Song of Myself an Analysis Essay

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1). Whitman is the spokesman of the American soul when he states, "How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he" (6.2). The American soul is newborn -- without, so it seems, definition.

He guesses that grass might be the symbol of his disposition -- green and growing, youthful and alive; or that it might be "the handkerchief of the Lord / A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt, / …that we may see and remark, and say Whose?" (6.4-6). Or it may be that the grass is a symbol of the child, just as the child, according to Wordsworth, is father of the man: so too is the grass father of us all -- as we are all part of the same life cycle -- samsara, as Eastern philosophy would call it.

The truth is that the grass is all of this: it is representative of life, of friendship, of commonality, of the soul, of God. It is a reminder of the eternal -- of the miracle of nature -- of the necessity for contemplation.

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Whitman "loafes" -- but only outwardly. Inwardly, he is busy reflecting and contemplating that mystery of nature and the transcendent spirit that is alive in the soul and in the world -- for which reason he remarks, "I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars" (31.1). It is an acknowledgement of the spiritual union of all things.

In conclusion, Whitman's "Song of Myself" is a song not just of individuality -- but of universality. In its own way, Whitman defines the American spirit according to new terms and new poetic modes; but in another way, Whitman reaches back to antiquity -- to the universals and transcendentals of Aristotelian philosophy -- of ancient man, who defined himself by applying his reason to the world around him, and taking the time to observe the workings of nature and the voice of his soul.

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