Reading Response

[Alexandra Smith]

     Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” was engaging and in line with some of the most bohemian poems I have read. I thought his free verse was a nice departure from the standard rhyming poems and gave his words more weight and depth. I found the overall theme of the poem to be Whitman connecting himself to nature and man. In many instances Whitman shows the equality between not only man and man but man and nature; ‘A child said what is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he/ Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation’ (6. 1-2). Despite Whitman’s acknowledgment of social definitions and restraints, it is recognized that human beings are primaly related to the natural world and will always have identify thereof. In stanza 6, Whitman announces ‘The smallest sprout shows there is really no death’. No matter how many times there is death in the world it is always replaced by new life and there is salvation in death because a life lived was part of a larger calling. I also found stanza 15 interesting because Whitman displayed the diversity of life and how everyone plays a certain role in the world. I found this poem intriguing to read because it found a way to connect every living thing together in some way or another.