![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This equalitarian doctrine is based both on the theory of evolution and on a pantheistic belief at one time Whitman is a mystic, and at another he proclaims, “Hurrah for positive science!,” while yet admitting that facts serve only to give entrance to “an area of my dwelling.” This inconsistency, however, he confesses and accepts: “Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” and at the end he reiterates his mystical pantheism (“I bequeath myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles …”). As the opening poem, Song of Myself sets the tempo and the theme for the rest of the collection, but it is also among Whitmans most transcendental poems. They offer you the opportunity to trace the development of 'Song of Myself' from Whitmans earliest notebook jottings through to the 1855 appearance of the poem. I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.”). Poem by Whitman, the untitled introduction to the first edition of Leaves of Grass (1855), later called “A Poem of Walt Whitman, An American” and “Walt Whitman,” and given its present title in 1881.ĭeclaring “I celebrate myself … Walt Whitman, a kosmos,” the poet sets forth two principal beliefs: the first, a theory of universality (“of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion”), is illustrated by lengthy catalogues of people and things the second is that all things are equal in value (“I am the poet of the Body and … of the Soul … not the poet of goodness only,… of wickedness also…. ![]()
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