American Literature

    In his poem  Song of Myself,  Walt Whitman envisages a concept of an interconnection between man (and woman), God, and nature as all part of the same essence. When he speaks of himself, he is speaking not of the individual man but the individual as part of the larger world. In the poem Whitman inclusively describes plants, animals, men and women, African Americans, Native Americans, and people of all religious faiths as belonging to his idea of self. Whitman is not doing so to illustrate his own personal acceptance but to instead demonstrate that stripped of all the distinctions of race, religion, even reality itself in the way we view nature and the cosmos, that for all the diversity of life on the planet and beyond we are all connected in our similarities.

    Titled as though a confession of self-identity, Whitman attempts to show the profundity of life and how the different forms of life crisscross one another to form almost a consolidation of their diversities. In many ways, as opposed to a song of self, this poem is a celebration of life itself. Connecting himself first to the earth, Whitman establishes his place as simply another relation to Nature,  every atom of my blood, formd from this soil, this air  (Part 2). He is a continuation of the cycle of human life and reproduction,  Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same  (2). Born of the same stuff as a tree or the air itself, human life has evolved and reproduced generations upon generations to produce him. As a human being, Whitman refuses to set himself apart from the rest of life on the planet, categorizing and arranging hierarchies based on importance, instead in his own existence he envisions  a breed of life  (3). This is life without stripped of politics, race, religion, genus, species, and the most fundamental understanding of how human beings distinguish themselves from the world around them and from one another.

    The questioning of a human beings basic understanding of hisher relationship to the world around them is shown best in Whitmans attention to the question of God. The idea of God is conventionally the idea of life itself, Whitman does not disagree with this sentiment. However, he does not distinguish God from any other form of life but like nature and man, it is a continuum of a living force and idea, not to be deified above man or nature. As Whitman explains,  I know that the hand of God is in the promise of my own, And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own, And that all men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers  (5). In placing God side by side with his idea of human brotherhood, Whitman is attempting to show that to show a kinship and worship of God when failing to acknowledge your relation to humanity is a hypocrisy. To embrace one form of life is to embrace all forms of life.

    Whitman illustrates this particularly well throughout the poem, as he intercepts his philosophical musings to shows scenes of life. Like the concepts of man, Nature and God that he is attempting to pull together, these short snippets of life are diverse, such as a suicide who  sprawls on the bloody floor of the bedroom  and  the impassive stones (9). Sometimes banal and other times, as with the brief description of the suicide, graphic, Whitman is attempting to paint a picture and not simply sing a song of life. Life is not a pretty nor always pleasant state of being, however, in a state of being we should have cause for celebration since we are interacting in a great wheel of experience.

    As important as the interconnection of man to other forms of life in Whitmans poem, is the connection of man to his fellow man. Neither religion, race, or belief can destroy the bond of life. However, it cant be said that it was for lacking of trying. At several points in the text, Whitman addresses the issue both directly and indirectly. Whitman envisions himself a slave, a Native American pushed off their land, and the religiously persecuted. In Whitmans philosophy, a crime against a human is a crime against not simply humanity but nature itself, as each instance of cruelty merely reproduces another. It too has become a part of the cycle,  The disdain and calmness of martyrs,  The mother of old, condemnd for a witch, burnt with dry wood, her children gazing on, The hounded slave that flags in the race   All these I feel or am  (33). To limit Whitmans observations on equality to race or gender would be in some ways to lessen the overall strength of his argument. Every living this is life embodied, to devalue one is to devalue an important part of the scope of life. However, though we are all part of life, I think Whitman does make the distinction between the different types of people persecuted within society to show that if we cannot protect and accept one another first than we wont ever be able to achieve the enlightened sense of belonging to the whole environment.

    I find it interesting that in speaking of equality of life, Whitman neither condemns religion for its role in upholding inequality in some instances or treats any particular religion with excessive reverence. His message stays a clear track of tolerance that crosses smoothly across the usually uneven terrain of religion. Of the old-time religions, he embraces them as they were in the past, as a natural progression and adaptive tool of mans changing life,  Taking them all for what they are worth  and not a cent more. Admitting they were alive and did the work of their days  (41). There is the feeling that he feels the same way of the Gods of Christianity or other modern religions, serving a purpose for their time and place. However, and some would likely say blasphemously, Whitman does not see the need for an evolution of faith that is limited to unseen Gods. He sees divinity in the lives of others,  Accepting the rough deific sketches to fill out better in myself, bestowing them freely on each man and woman I see. Discovering as much or more in a framer framing a house  (41). To limit the power of giving life to an unseen force, when so much creation obviously takes shape around us in the physical world, is to undermine the nature of man

    It is difficult to concentrate Whitmans thesis for this poem into a single, short, and concise sentence. To simply state the it is a celebration of life is to ignore the undertones of life that Whitman takes such pains to show in detail. It would ignore the interconnectedness of God, man, and nature as part of an equally powerful cycle of life. This poem is a song of self in the manner in which Whitman sees and feels himself in the world around him. It is equally about accepting that same world into yourself as an integral part of understanding the boundaries of life, equality, and humanity at its most basic level. That he so beautifully uses examples of science, religion, and social observations shows how these very concepts that attempt to compartmentalize life, are in themselves one and the same. Whitman does not use these concepts against themselves but merely expands beyond the normal limits of examining how they function. He is attempting to take what has been separated by human history and combine it together, accepting all as part of himself,  of these one and all I weave the song of myself  (15).