This poem celebrates the poet’s self, but, while the “I” is the poet himself, it is, at the same time, universalized. The poet will “sing myself,” but “what I assume you shall assume,/For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” The poet loafs on the grass and […]
Read more Summary and Analysis: Song of Myself”” Sections 1-5, lines 1-98Summary and Analysis: Song of Myself”” Introduction
This poem had no title in the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. In 1856 it was called “A Poem of Walt Whitman, an American” and in 1860 it was simply termed “Walt Whitman.” Whitman changed the title to “Song of Myself” in 1881. The changes in the title […]
Read more Summary and Analysis: Song of Myself”” IntroductionSummary and Analysis: Inscriptions Thou Reader””
Whitman says that the reader “throbbest life and pride and love” in the same way as the poet does; therefore, he offers “the following chants” (Leaves of Grass) to him. This poem was added to Leaves of Grass in 1881. Even though, like “To You,” it is only two lines […]
Read more Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions Thou Reader””Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions To You””
Whitman tells the stranger that if their paths cross they should communicate with each other: “Why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you?” This poem is only two lines long but it is significant in the way it deals with the relationship between […]
Read more Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions To You””Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions Poets to Come””
Whitman, addressing poets of the future, declares that this great “new brood” should awake and “justify” him. Conscious of his philosophical limitations, he says that he can “but write one or two indicative words for the future.” Since he can turn only “a casual look” upon these artists of the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions Poets to Come””Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions I Hear America Singing””
The poet hears the “varied carols” of all the people who contribute to the life and culture of America. The mechanic, the carpenter, the mason, the boatman, the shoemaker, and the woodcutter all join in the chorus of the nation. The singing of the mother, the wife, and the girl […]
Read more Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions I Hear America Singing””Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions To the States””
The poet calls upon the cities and the states to “resist much, obey little.” Unquestioning obedience will lead to slavery, and if a nation is enslaved, it may never regain its freedom. This is one of the small, though significant, dedicatory poems in Inscriptions. Whitman feels that one of the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions To the States””Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions For Him I Sing””
The “him” for whom the poet sings is his ideal man of imagination and vision. “I raise the present on the past,” Whitman says, comparing this process to the growth of a tree from its roots. He also depicts, he says, the ideal man’s movement in space and in time. […]
Read more Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions For Him I Sing””Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions As I Ponder’d in Silence””
As the poet meditated on his poetry, a phantom, beautiful but terrible, the muse of ancient poets, appeared before him. The spirit asked him about the themes of his poetry and asserted that it is “the theme of War, the fortune of battles,/The making of perfect soldiers,” which are the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions As I Ponder’d in Silence””Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions One’s-Self I Sing””
Although the poet sings of the self as “a simple separate person,” he also sees it as part of “the word Democratic,” which represents the mass of people. He sings of “the Form complete,” the female as well as the male, of “Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,” and […]
Read more Summary and Analysis: Inscriptions One’s-Self I Sing””