Walt Whitman Rhetorical Devices

Some people may accuse Walt Whitman, of being an egotist. Whitman is not an egotist, he is not overfocused on himself, but on all of humanity. In poem number 1, I celebrate and sing myself, he is not only focusing and celebrating himself, he is celebrating life and all humans. Whitman says, “And what I shall assume, you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as well belongs to you.” In this line Whitman is explaining how we are all the same, we all come from the same place, from the same ancestors, and we will all return to the earth in death. “My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same”.

In the poem 6, A child said what is the grass? Walt Whitman is not focused on himself but the grass and what it really is. Whitman does not know anymore than the kid knows about the grass. Whitman says the grass could be “the handkerchief of the Lord,” “a uniform hieroglyphic,” or “the beautiful uncut hair of graves.” Whitman talks about the grass, saying “It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men… It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mothers’ laps.” He also states in this poem that us humans, we really

never die, we return to the earth and form life again. He believes that grass is the sprout of life that shows there is really no death.
In poem 33 I understand the large hearts of heroes Walt Whitman is honoring and celebrating all the ordinary people who do heroic things. He understands how the skipper suffered while on a ship for days, he feels for “the mother of old, condem’d for a witch, burnt with dry wood, her children gazing on.” Whitman says the hounded slave who tried to escape but failed, is also a hero. He states “I am the mash’d fireman with breast-bone broken,” is a hero because he risked his life to save others from death. He feels the nurse caring for all the sick is a hero for what she does. The old artillerist who’s fort was attacked is also a hero “I take part, I see and hear the whole, The cries, curses, roar, the plaudits for well aimed shots, The ambulanza slowly passing trailing it’s red drip… The whizz of limbs, heads, stone, wood, iron, high in the air.”
In the poem The spotted hawk swoops by Whitman is comparing himself to a hawk.

“I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.” Whitman also revisits his idea about what happens to people when we die and how we go away and all end up back in the same place. When Whitman gets old and as he dies, he says “I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun”. He also shows how even though he seems dead he really isn’t, “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.” Whitman says that if you're missing someone, search somewhere else because they always “stop somewhere waiting for

you.”
Overall, Walt Whitman may seem like an egotist by using the word “I” in many lines of his poems, but he isn’t. Although he always talks in first person in his book “Song of Myself” he is comparing himself to all other people and explains how we are all the same. He compares himself to all of humanity in poem number 1, to a child and all of our ancestors that returned to the earth after death in poem number 6. In poem number 33 Whitman is honoring all people for the heroic things they do. Then, in poem number 52 he compares himself to all other people and to nature.