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DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY LONG PAPER

COVER SHEET

SEMESTER III OF 2022-2023

NAME OF THE STUDENT: Mary Narzary

COLLEGE- Indraprastha College for Women
EXAM ROLL NO.: 21029708011
TITLE OF THE PAPER: Discourse of Whitman’s poetic Self in “Song of Myself”

DATE OF SUBMISSION : 4th January, 2023

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Full Name: Mary Narzary

Signature: Mary
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Mary Narzary

Roll Number: 21029708011

College: Indraprastha College for Women

Course: Research Methodology ( 120352307)

4 January 2023

Discourse of Whitman’s Poetic Self in “Song of Myself”

Abstract

Poetry has never failed to please the mankind. “Song of Myself” engages with

Whitman’s attempt to bridge duality. He conveys that he is universal- a poet of the

masses, attempting a dominant aspect of democracy. This approach by Whitman

allows the reader to delve deep into his personality, a better study of his self, the

cycles of life and death. This paper seeks to explore the journey of Whitman’s self

in his celebrated poem “Song of Myself” through his representation of universality,

identity, underlying what it means to be a true American. By examining Whitman’s

self, I simplify the process of how Whitman paints the imagery of his day to day

life to define his self as a ‘universal self’, that is, the underlying image of his

individuality ‘I’ in “Song of Myself”. Being said that raises the question, is Whitman

really a universal poet? Does he really contribute to his country through his

individualistic approach? The core purpose of this paper shall convey the message

that poetry is a medium to mirror one’s self, true identity, the body, the soul through

the lens of readership.

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Keywords: selfhood, universality, individuality, identity, Whitman.

To begin with the historical context, the early publication of “Leaves of

Grass” in July 1855 gained bitter criticism from all corners of the Atlantic. Not

until later, when it is Emerson who hailed Whitman’s work “to be the most

extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom” (Kumar). It was believed that Whitman at

that point of time found his saviour. Another recognition was put forth by. D. H.

Lawrence who claimed him to be “a kindred soul”.

Born on May 31, 1819, Whitman led a life full of challenges yet he never

failed to paint himself to be an “extraordinary piece”. Whitman through his soulful

verses draws the readers attention that he is just not describing America per se

rather he himself is America. When he speaks, he speaks for the common masses

including himself, the poem, the reader, and the writer are all one according to

Whitman. This reflects that his verses are not exclusively for private consumption.

Navarro rightly puts it that Whitman builds a “text-reader relationship”, he argues

that the main purpose of Whitman’s poetry is “to convey the feeling that we are

involved in a private dialogue with the writer…” (112) as in to develop

“comradeship with the audience” - to make the reader a participant, to establish

communion between poet and the reader. Central to the idea of democracy of

America, Whitman identifies the sanctity of an individual, the absolute idea of

one’s everyday life is nucleus of his poem. Whitman emphasizes his concern to

associate with others for the growth of one’s self, alerting the mankind that

isolation from the rest of the world can be highly problematic. In other words,
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civic life is essential to democracy, that is, to know the other is to know the self,

that one cannot articulate if self is isolated.

There is a plethora of works that has analysed the verses of Whitman. For

the purpose of this research, emphasis has been made on the works that deal with

Whitman’s poetic self. This has been brought on from the constant movement in

the poem, Whitman tells us it is universal, that it is a poem of self, an expression

of American desires. He underlies the idea of what it means to be an American

through his verses: “I celebrate myself/ And what I assume you shall assume…”

(Whitman 1). It is the fundamental act of celebrating American democracy, to be

precise celebrating his self. The subject of the poem is “self” where “self “ exists

within larger pattern. “Self” is perceived by Whitman as a community, not just

human beings rather the large framework of the created universe. He engenders

consciousness that separation from the rest of the world beguiles us to the

paradoxical state. The need to associate with others is the sole endeavour of his

poem. This hypothesis is further apparent in what Chase claims that Whitman is a

democratic self who approaches the mankind in a democratic disposition, a call to

encompass the mankind to be part of his democratic self, to be “body of all men”

(Chase 8). This looks like that Whitman intended to build the more of his self, not

the personal self rather the self of the nature, the society. It further appears that

Whitman intended to bring forth the perception that poetry is meant “to be sung

or declaimed” ( Chase 15), he believes it is an act of oration. According to Chase,

“Song of Myself” can be understood as the “universalization of self” ( Chase 16).

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We encounter since the very beginning that the poem holds a dialogic pattern

by addressing “you” , that is reference to all mankind. Whitman’s self can be read

as a plethora of perception from others to that of the human soul. It is through

the “I” that soul enters the realm of “Song of Myself”. He manifests the joy he

experiences through his senses. This is apparent in the following lines: “My

respiration and inspiration …the beating of my heart …the passing of blood and air

through my lungs” (Whitman 1). The sensuousness functions as a tool to establish

the parallel relation, where the “I” seems to form a larger group of every other

being of nature to establish the virtual proximity. The self is not biased and seems

to rejoice the everyday, the old and the new to accomplish the rapturous

beautification. Moreover, the “self” contrives as a virtual and spiritual quiddity that

endures perpetually where the outcome of the “self” becomes an animating spirit.

And to be in force or to transcend this “self”, the poet creates the communion or

he merges the “I” with the mankind. This is evident through the following lines in

section 26 of the poem: “I hear the sounds I love…I hear the chorus and this

indeed is music” ( Whitman 24). The theoretical framework of the “self” can be

also analysed as the voice of the random American or the voice of an ordinary

American poet. The definition of “I” and “You” throughout the poem throws light

on the vivid identities, to determine the plethora of identities of nature, the living

and the non-living. In my opinion, the “You” is perceived at a pluralistic level as

an active listener and the reader, to arrive at the mastery of ‘we’- an amalgamation

of the “en-masse”, the identity of the outright mankind. The poetic self for that

reason embraces all the “multitudes” as Whitman claims. To be precise, the “I”

stands as an identity for all the representations in the poem. As implied by Frank
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that “the driving force behind Whitman to write “Song of Myself” is to display

personality”, that is, from the vivid “I” to “We”.

Furthermore, Whitman serves not only as the poet, rather as a teacher, a

prophet, a democratic visionary, philosopher throughout the poem. The teaching

lessons imparted by Whitman to the “you” builds a pedagogical relationship

between the reader and the poet: “I am the teacher of athletes…My words itch at

your years till you understand” ( Whitman 50). The phrase “till you understand”

seems to me that Whitman coerces the “you” to be an active listener throughout

his poetic journey (my emphasis). However, there stands a bitter criticism against

Whitman by philosopher George Santayana. For Santayana, Whitman seems

ambiguous in his poetical approach towards the mankind. He criticizes that

Whitman “failed radically in his approach in his dearest ambition: he can never be

a poet of the people” (Santayana 41). Santayana believes that “to understand people

is to go much deeper than they go themselves” (41). It seems Whitman failed to

build a scientific approach and to sympathize with the mankind according to him.

Another critic Alice L. Cooke contends the same. Cooke contends that Whitman’s

approach to “Song of Myself” is less of scientific approach. In addition, I would

infer that Whitman upholds the need to associate with others, the need to know

the other for one cannot articulate if self is isolated. The unity with mankind is

created through many symbols like grass, the cycles of life and death. He presents

an inclusive vision which is an aspect of America. It is a sense of epic journey of

the poetic persona to and fro, an inward journey to understand the self and

outward as to understand the complexity of America. In the words of James E

Miller, the poem seeks to explore the union between the self and the body, the
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various steps to achieve “union with the transcendent” (637). His intense awareness

of his self awakens his “consciousness of divine relationship to God, to other men

and women” (Miller 640).

Whitman seems to perceive everything from a higher point of view. On

another note, the personification of “Me myself” in section 4 according to

Bauerlein “signifies the real Whitman, his core of identity” (131). He argues that

Whitman’s insincerity of not naming himself paints the picture of his relation he

“desires to have with his readers” (Bauerlin 131). With this view, Bauerlin’s claim

for Whitman builds the picture of true democracy through his verses by making

the reader a participant, by bridging the gap between the high and the low, the

call of the living voice to include all and to exclude none where everyone stands

equal to him: “I do not call one greater and one smaller / That which fills its

period and place is equal to any” (Whitman 46).

In the trajectory being laid out by Jason Frank, he examines how

Whitman represents the people through his verse. He claims that he has a

“democratic vision” (Frank 404). Frank’s argument notes as to what he views

poetry as a voice of the people beyond “pen or tongue”. The invocation of

Whitman’s people in his poetry is evident enough to state that he emphasized the

participation of poet and the reader, that he offers an inclusive identification. The

celebration of simple separate self and the informality of the diction is a part of

democracy. The movement from mere observation to active participation where

Whitman himself is an active participant, the poetic persona identifies himself with

the outer world. Another critique Navarro argues that the main purpose of
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Whitman’s poetry is “to convey the feeling that we are involved in a private

dialogue with the writer…” (112). Whitman attempts to create the reader a

participant, to build “comradeship with the audience” ( Navarro 112). In my

judgement, he exemplifies here that Whitman establishes the communion between

reader and poet to build a text-reader relationship. And such an inter-relation

between the reader and the poet shows that the “self” without the intervention of

the divine nature or the reader is incomplete in itself. The “self” thus can be seen

as “more selves than two” (Lehman 11). Lehman argues that Whitman is a “seer

of democracy” also a “public self” who expresses freedom. It is supported by the

lines: “I am the mate and companion of the people, all just as immortal and

fathomless as myself” ( Whitman 6). According to Newman, democracy could be

achieved only through “comradeship”. This argument further upholds the idea that

Whitman wanted communion between rich and the poor. He asserts that Whitman

was a “Man” of his people. To him everyone was equal and that Whitman’s

contribution to America through his verses should be read as an “offering of

another kind” ( Newman 268). Whitman’s greatest effort lies in to connect with the

‘people’. Kateb claims that the poem is a democratic poem where the “rights of

the body are as sacred as those of the soul” (50). Poetry in this formulation

becomes an act of communion, poetry as a means of reaching out to the world

which allows man to fulfil the potentiality of their self. The idea that we are part

of the larger universe, Whitman literalize things that we are part of the great cycle

of life - one divine spark of creation. He writes about dissolving in nature,

encourages us “to become ever more consistent in living the life of equal rights” (

Kateb 557). The fact that Whitman “admits everyone” into his poem is evident

enough to claim. To regard everyone with equal fervour, “to sympathize with what
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is unattractive, to recognize that when one learns to perceive more beauty and feel

more sympathy, one is only doing justice to oneself…” (Kateb 557).

Lastly, the array of identifications brought forth by Whitman to build the

enigma of identity justifies the reader’s experience of the poem. Whitman truly

builds a conventional pattern of the lyrical discourse where the “self” must

navigate back and forth, in and out from the unconscious to the most living state

of consciousness. In reading the self from the perspective of the divine, the living

and the non-living, we encounter that the “self” isn’t self-sufficient and it has to

come to terms with the mankind to co-exist. In other words, the “self”

accomplishes the identity of an odyssey through the presence of the inevitable

other. Whitman’s poetry stands tall amidst all the criticisms, it transfigures the

individual through his reconciling verses, a call to unite with the masses regardless

of disparities. With such aptness in the spectrum of identity discourse, Whitman

seems to stand firm with the “self” notwithstanding his approach is towards the

diversified man.
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