Grass
"Song of Myself" did not originally have a title, but people probably thought it was titled Leaves of Grass, which is the name of the book in which it was published. It was the first poem in that b...
Me, Myself, and I (and My Soul, too)
It's not easy to keep track of exactly who is talking in the poem. We have the guy named "Walt Whitman," but Walt also has a deeper self he calls "Me Myself" or just "Myself." Oh, and then there's...
Hey, "You"
Didn't you know that you were one of the main characters of this poem? It's not like you had a choice. It seems like Whitman mentions "you" in every other line. His goal is to force you, whether yo...
A Journey
The journey is the main extended metaphor in the poem, which begins in the daytime and ends at night. The poem itself is a journey, and this is one of the reasons why "Song of Myself" is considered...
Lists (Catalogues)!
Lists that go on and on are one of Whitman's specialties. They define his poetic style. In this poem, he tries to contain the entire world within "Myself," the all mighty "I." This requires naming...
The Twenty-Ninth Bather
The "Twenty-Ninth Bather" section of "Song of Myself' is so famous that we felt it deserved its own heading here. Basically, it's a short narrative or vignette, along the lines of the naval battle...