“I celebrate myself.” Walt Whitman’s introduction into Song of Myself sets a distinctive tone for his writing. Whitman’s influenced American in many ways and the driving forces of this influence are disguised within the complexities of his writing. Whitman’s desire was for humans and specifically Americans to be in harmony with the universe, with themselves as individuals, and with each other as a nation and he used his writing to encourage this belief between fellow man. Encompassed in the themes in Song of Myself, Whitman drives this belief into the hearts and minds of the American people and the world. At times latent and at other obvious, Whitman uses individualism and democracy, transcendentalism, and unity of nature and death to influence
…show more content…
He denied traditional beliefs of time and space and of his place in the universe. In Song of Myself section 44 Whitman speaks of himself on earth before the time of humans as though his soul or life force has been here always in different forms “sleeping” until his time to be born or awoken. “Afar down I see the huge first Nothing, I know I was even there, I waited unseen and always, and slept through the lethargic mist, And took my time, and took no hurt from the fetid carbon” (Whitman Section 44) Further along in this section Whitman says “Now on this spot I stand with my robust soul.” His robust soul has been given this great substance from its time spent descending through time and space, waiting for his time to be born. In the critical essay “Walt Whitman: When Science and Mysticism Collide” Walt Whitman’s transcendent view of life is described as
““Real reality” as he called it, was an immaterial mind, soul, or spirit (the terms were interchangeable) that filters, interprets, and even creates the data if sensations. The objects of thought had more reality than the objects of sense. Unlike sullied and corruptible matter, mind was eternal, unfettered by time or space, its own constructions”
He denied traditional beliefs of time and space and of his place in the universe. In Song of Myself section 44 Whitman speaks of himself on earth before the time of humans as though his soul or life force has been here always in different forms “sleeping” until his time to be born or awoken. “Afar down I see the huge first Nothing, I know I was even there, I waited unseen and always, and slept through the lethargic mist, And took my time, and took no hurt from the fetid carbon” (Whitman Section 44) Further along in this section Whitman says “Now on this spot I stand with my robust soul.” His robust soul has been given this great substance from its time spent descending through time and space, waiting for his time to be born. In the critical essay “Walt Whitman: When Science and Mysticism Collide” Walt Whitman’s transcendent view of life is described as
““Real reality” as he called it, was an immaterial mind, soul, or spirit (the terms were interchangeable) that filters, interprets, and even creates the data if sensations. The objects of thought had more reality than the objects of sense. Unlike sullied and corruptible matter, mind was eternal, unfettered by time or space, its own constructions”