Song of Myself Analysis

Whitman's particular style of writing has come to be known as "free verse," but not everyone agrees with this term. The term "free verse" was popularized by 20th century poets like William Carlos...

Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" has the craziest speaker situation in any poem we know of, so bear with us here. At Shmoop, we usually don't refer to the speaker of a poem by the author's name, but...

"Song of Myself' is set in too many locations to name. At the same time, you could argue that the speaker goes to all of these places without moving anywhere at all. He just wants to "loafe" and lo...

 If the speaker wasn't ambivalent about priests, preachers, and clergymen, we'd think he was a preacher himself. The poem sounds like a really long, deeply passionate sermon, and the audience...

If Whitman were in a relationship with "titles" for "Song of Myself" on Facebook, the status would read, "It's complicated." In the first, historic edition of Leaves of Grass from 1855, the poem ha...

Wait, what's a catalogue? In poetry, catalogue is just a list of stuff. It could even be a grocery list, provided you've got especially poetic groceries. "Song of Myself" is the ultimate poem for c...

Walt Whitman is an accessible poet. Everyone can, and should, read Whitman. There's something about his poetic tone that is so reassuring that it's hard to be intimidated by him. Plus, he never jud...

Walt Whitman was a bigger self-promoter than Don King (boxing reference…anyone? Anyone?). After Leaves of Grass was published, he wrote anonymous reviews of his own collection, including one in w...

Whitman was completely unashamed about human eroticism and sexuality, at least when he first published the poem in 1855. He thought sex was natural, and not something to giggle or blush about. "Son...

Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance" (section 2)Crucifixion of Jesus Christ (section 38)World Religions: Greek myth, Hinduism, Islam, Brahmism, Mayan (section 41), Christianity, Native American rel...