![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The dominant tone of “Song of Myself” is joyous and mystical. The idea behind “Song of Myself” is that individual identity is temporary but transcendent. This comprehensive awareness makes the speaker of the poem greater than himself, but it is a greatness and uniqueness that is, he emphasizes, accessible to all. His ordinariness is in fact so comprehensive that he absorbs each American, past, present, and future. Instead of trying to say how unique his feelings and thoughts are, Whitman emphasizes his ordinariness. The author’s name does not appear on the first edition’s title page, but it is mentioned in the poem: “Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos.” This characterization sums up the subject of identity in “Song of Myself.” Whitman presents himself as an American working man and as a mystical figure at one with the universe.Īlthough the poem identifies “myself” simply as Walt Whitman, the identity of the speaker is also mythic. “Song of Myself” was first published as the untitled opening poem of Leaves of Grass in 1855. ![]()
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