Literary Techniques In Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself

Originally published in 1855, Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is a classic piece of narrative poetry. Whitman is known for using a multitude of stanzas with varying lengths, without having a formal rhyme scheme or structure. In “Song of Myself,” we see that there is no rhyme scheme. Looking at Whitman’s style at composing poems, “Song of Myself” is no exception to Whitman’s ability to construct smooth, free flowing poetry. There isn’t really a form being shown, he simply writes as if he were telling a story, which he is. However, Walt uses several literary devices while doing so. You can see that Whitman uses repetition in three of his lines all beginning with “It may be…” Other things that you may notice are metaphors that he includes in this section.

An example of that would be “This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers.” Whitman uses multiple devices in “Song of Myself,” to establish a connection between other poems he has written. One device for example is repetition. An example would this is when he repeated the phrase, “The grass.” While looking into the poem, Whitman uses consonance in some of his lines, an example such as, “The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,” where he repeats the letter “s” within the line. Furthermore, within Whitman’s arsenal would be the use of imagery, giving the readers a glimpse of his life as if they were living it out. Whitman’s diction provides to be very detailed which is why we’re able to in a way, easily visualize his lines. By utilizing such adjectives when describing people or even things, he is able to paint in some way, a piece for others to see.