Walt Whitman and Humanity essays

Walt Whitman and Humanity essays Walt Whitman was a transcendentalist poet, who was the first American to use free write. He puts to use imagery and creates numerous ideas and thoughts. He wrote various poems including: Song of Myself and When Lilacs in the Dooryard Bloomd. When reading these particular poems, Whitman seems to be concerned not simply with himself, but with all of humanity. These poems supply us with convincing evidence of this notion. The five main points are that; Whitman uses I in the collective form, celebration of being an American, national figures death, patterns of life, death, and rebirth, and the peoples connection with nature. I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume, you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you(1.1-3). Whitman begins Song of Myself, with these confident lines. In these few words he explains that when he celebrates and sings, we should also be celebrating and singing. That we are all connected together and what he knows we also know. When he continues on in the poem he is not singularly referring to himself but everybody, that all have these thoughts and ideas. This is why he uses grass in the question that the child asks, since grass has roots all over everybody is involved. Also, he later states we have several things in common, including the air that covers all. Everybody is part of a larger force, the universe and every person becomes undistinguishable from it. In conjunction with Whitman using I as a collective form he, also focuses on the celebration of being an American. He describes what various people do in their lives to make then what they are, whether they are a singer or a carpenter they celebrate their life as an American. From the Yankee, to the Southerner, to the Californians we are all comrades, and not a single person will be left out of being an Amer ...