Individuality in Whitman's Song of Myself
During a lecture in 1907, William James said "the philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly means. It is only partly got from books; it is our individual way of just seeing and feeling the total push and pressure of the cosmos" (Bartlett 546) Individuality has been a prevalent theme in every type of literature for quite some time. Whether it is a character discovering his/her individuality or the author expressing his, literature is full of distinctness. The term individuality changes meaning with each person it meets. That is what makes the dynamic word so great. Throughout particular works read this semester, individuality has been the foundation for several of them. Walt Whitman takes his newfound ideas and Quaker background and introduces American Literature to a totally different meaning of individuality in "Song of Myself."
Whitman's radical ideas of individualism have a great deal to do with his Quaker background. The Quaker religion is one in which the authority was Inner Light. "Whitman himself was not only personally familiar with, but deeply impressed by, a religion whose only authority was the Inner Light" (Canoy 481). The Inner Light is a special influence, which made Whitman's poetry unique. This certain influence did such things as guide Whitman down his soul searching path as well as help him define within himself the characteristics of an individual. In section fifteen of "Song of Myself," Whitman discusses people from every class and every profession. He goes on to say "the young fellow drives the express-wagon... love him though I do not know him;" (2753). ...
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...either hasten their own delivery, not resist it" (2767). Would it really be that bad to be an individualist instead of conforming to the crowd? I do not think so.
Works Cited
*Bartlett, John. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Boston: Little,Brown and Company,1992.
*Canby,Henry Seidel, Johnson, Thomas H., Ludwig,Richard M., Spiller, Robert E., Thorp, Willard. Literary History of the United States. New York: The MacMillian Company, 1963.
*Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography and Poor Richards almanacks. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd ed. Ed. Paul Lauter.Boston, NewYork: Houghton Mifflin,1998.
*Renyolds, David S., Walt Whitman's America-A Cultural Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.
*Whitman, Walt. Song of Myself. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd ed. Ed, Paul Lauter. Boston,NewYork: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
Whitman, Walt. "Song of Myself." The Norton Anthology of American Literature.. Gen. ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol. C. New York: Norton, 2012. 24-67. Print.
Magill, Frank N. Magill's Survey of American Literature, Volume 5. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1991. 29 Apr. 2011
in Adventures in American Literature. Ed. Fannie Safier et al. Athena Edition. Austin: Holt, 1996.
A literary catalog is considered a long list of events. One of the works that it is demonstrated in is “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman. Whitman writes over 52 sections within his poem, which clearly he mastered the technique. He informs the reader that it is time to celebrate himself which then he transmits different episodes of his experiences. The main concern is that his poem is universal in America and can encourage self-reliance.
Many women around the world have big responsibilities in the military, and although some people may disagree, I believe they can handle anything a man can handle when it comes to being on the battlefield. Some people think that women should not be able to fight in the military, where as other people think they should be able to fight in the military. Each supporter and non-supporter has their own reasons. Some of the reasons for the non-supporters are because of their gender. They think that because they are women, they cannot handle the challenges that being on the battlefield brings. Women are willing to fight, and they know what can happen, they know exactly what can happen. They are willing to fight for their country, and I believe they should be able to. The men that fight for our country are against women fighting in combat. They believe that women are not capable of doing what they do to defend and fight for our country. The men feel that they cannot trust women to help back them up at war simply because of the fact that they are women.
What would Dewey and other “Pedagogical Progressives” say in response to Hirsch’s critique of progressive education?
The Heath Anthology of American Literature repeatedly refers to Walt Whitman and his poetry in terms of being American, yet as I read Song of Myself, my thoughts are continually drawn to the philosophies and religions of the Far East. Like the Tao Te Ching ideas are expressed in enigmatic verse and each stanza is a Zen koan waiting to be meditated on and puzzled out. Even Emerson called Whitman's poetry "a remarkable mixture of the Bhagvat Gita and the New York Herald" ("The Whitman Project"). Song of Myself contains multitudes of passages that express Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist thought.
“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere” (Whitman 33) is Walt Whitman’s first and one of his most popular works, Leaves of Grass. It was and still is very inspirational to many people including Ralph Waldo and many others after him. He had a major influence on modern free verse. Following a hard childhood in and around New York, Walter Whitman was well known and received in his time for Leaves of Grass which did not use the universal theme, which he became known for in the eighteenth century as well as his way of seeing the world in a view that very few could comprehend in his time.
John Dewey was a leading proponent of the American school of thought known as pragmatism. Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that includes those who claim that an ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily. John Dewey was the third major figure in the classical pragmatist pantheon, whose wide-ranging writings had considerable impact on American intellectual life for a half-century (McDermid, D. 2017).
When discussing the concept of politics, many people’s thinking would not immediately jump to the idea of self or the soul, but would rather focus more intensely on the way we treat others, and the importance of small/large/no government systems. While both are of great importance to give thought to, philosophers Frederick Nietzsche and Walt Whitman challenge readers to think more closely about what exactly it means to possess a mentality of the self, and to examine the way it plays out in our everyday lives. Both authors are accredited with being highly influential thinkers on individualistic philosophy and concepts that are still studied today. While Whitman didn’t necessarily encourage the pursuit of individualism, he sought to educate others in the recognition of being individuals in a grander scheme of things. That, while we might all be separate beings, that we are all a part of the Universe, and that everything we do should be in correlation to the promotion and expansion of all living beings. Another strong factor of Whitman’s thoughts on expansive individualism, as expressed in “Leaves of Grass”, is that the way we discover and expand ourselves is based
Baym, Franklin, Gottesman, Holland, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1994.
Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 8th ed. New York:
Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is a vision of the American spirit, a vision of Whitman himself. It is his cry for democracy, giving each of us a voice through his poetry. Each of us has a voice and desires, and this is Whitman's representation of our voices, the voice of America. America, the great melting pot, was founded for freedom and democracy, and this poem is his way of re-instilling these lost American ideals. In this passage from "Song of Myself" Whitman speaks through his fellow man and speaks for his fellow man when his voice is not socially acceptable to be heard.
John Dewey (1859 – 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational activist whose notions have been prominent in education and social reform. Dewey is one of the primary figures linked with the philosophy of pragmatism and is considered one of the fathers of functional psychology.
Lauter, Paul. The Heath Anthology of American Literature Fifth Edition Volume B Early Nineteenth Century: 1800-1865 2006