Walt Whitman, in his
poem “
Song of Myself” (1882), writes of the
beauty of
nature and the
divinity of mankind. He sees the
uniqueness and common bond of
everything, especially his fellow
man, whom he views as a fellow
traveler in a
romantic adventure. He first explains his own
divinity, and then moves to show that the reader is also
divine.
Whitman celebrates the divinity of
himself. To him,
everything is sacred for he “hears and beholds God in every object” (1282). But if everything is sacred, he is more so: he can not “understand
anything who… can be more wonderful” (1283) than himself. He places himself on a
divine plane by stating “and nothing, not God, is greater to one than one’s self is” (1271), a
level that he modestly and joyously accepts. Whitman sees his
life as a “
perpetual journey” (1202), of which he is the central figure and hero; and he is a
wild hero at that, unique in all the world, “not a bit tamed” (1330). For Whitman, this
uniqueness is often (in some respects) synonymous with divinity.
This
concept leads Whitman to write that all, even the “
kept-woman,
sponger,
thief” (375), are divine and are invited on his “
perpetual journey” (1202), because they too are unique. He also stresses the common bonds they share, such as an
adventurous spirit and
love of life. He credits his
achievements to the
reader as much as to himself, saying “If they are not yours as much as mine, they are
nothing” (356). He points to the divinity in
common things, such as the “
early redstart” (385), leading one to realize that one, unique in all the world, is even greater in one’s divinity. Whitman does not only celebrate other great
warriors and poets, but also the “counquer’d and
slain persons” (362), with as much or greater
zeal than his successful fellow journeymen. It is in these slain and conquered and common people’s “ faces…that
he sees God” (1284).
Whitman sees God everywhere he looks, in the
sunrise and
sunset, the
beggar and the
lame, himself and his
country. He sees this divinity as a common bond, one that unites the human race and the entire world in a holy and
permanent union that is the natural
order of things. Whitman uses this as a launching point for describing life as a journey, and exhorts one to live it fully and enjoy one’s own unique divinity.
boo yahNote: The
numbers in parentheses are the
line number, and they are actual quotations from "
Song of Myself", some of the verb tenses have been slightly modified.