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Walt WhitmanA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“Song of Myself” is a quintessentially American poem in its incredible diversity of influences. Like the United States itself, “Song of Myself” is a melting pot. As a journalist, writer, and voracious self-learner, Whitman was not only widely read: He recognized this aspect of himself as supremely “American,” and was motivated to weave all his realms of knowledge together into a pastiche of American life. This section will discuss three of the major literary influences on “Song of Myself”: epic poetry, the Bible, and poetic movements of Whitman’s day, primarily Romanticism and Transcendentalism.
Whitman broadcasts his intent to interact with the epic genre in the very first line of his poem: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” The format recalls famous openings lines of ancient Greek and Roman epic poems: Homer’s “Sing, goddess, the wrath of Peleus’ son Achilles” and “Sing to me, Muse, a man of twists and turns” and Virgil’s “I sing of arms and a man.” While Whitman’s opening line immediately situates “Song of Myself” in the epic tradition, he deploys other epic devices too, the most famous being his liberal use of the epic catalogue (for more on
By Walt Whitman
A Glimpse
A Glimpse
Walt Whitman
America
America
Walt Whitman
A Noiseless Patient Spider
A Noiseless Patient Spider
Walt Whitman
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
Walt Whitman
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
Walt Whitman
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Walt Whitman
For You O Democracy
For You O Democracy
Walt Whitman
Hours Continuing Long
Hours Continuing Long
Walt Whitman
I Hear America Singing
I Hear America Singing
Walt Whitman
I Sing the Body Electric
I Sing the Body Electric
Walt Whitman
I Sit and Look Out
I Sit and Look Out
Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
O Captain! My Captain!
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night
Walt Whitman
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
Walt Whitman
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
Walt Whitman
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