Reflection of Whitman and Self

Walt Whitman, considered the American Bard, was a very great American poet who wrote many songs and poems during the 1800’s. His works are classified as in between the realism literary period and the modernism literary period. Some of his most famous poems are “Myself and Mine,” “One Song, America, Before I Go,” “O Captain! My Captain!,” “Excelsior,” “The Singer in the Prison,” “When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d,” and “As I Watch’d the Ploughman Ploughing.” In each of these poems, Walt Whitman’s meaning of Self is explained, especially through song.
Walt Whitman defines the Self in his poems, and one finds this Self in song. Whitman describes Self as the soul of oneself, and there are specific characteristics to this. He believes that Self is freedom of the soul, freedom to express oneself, and freedom to live how they want, and how they think is the right way to live.
“I charge you, too, forever, reject those who would expound me—for I cannot expound
myself;
I charge that there be no theory or school founded out of me;
I charge you to leave all free, as I have left all free.
After me, vista!
O, I see life is not short, but immeasurably long;
I henceforth tread the world, chaste, temperate, an early riser, a steady grower,
Every hour the semen of centuries—and still of centuries.
I will follow up these continual lessons of the air, water, earth;
I perceive I have no time to lose.” (Whitman)
One way that Whitman expresses the Self is through song. The main characters of the poems use singing to free themselves from pain, from sadness, and to embrace their full self. In “The Singer in the Prison,” the main character, a convict in prison, sings and impresses everyone with her song (Whitman). This is her way of escaping her present state of misery and to free her of this misery and express her true self. This shows how Walt Whitman thinks that song can find one’s soul and to find one’s self.
In Walt Whitman’s poems of the realism and modernism literary periods, Whitman defines Self, especially through song. The characters of his poems free themselves of bad situations by singing and finding their souls and being free. This can also be applied to society at the time. Whitman is saying that Self if not defined by the government or a nation. It is defined by the individual; and what frees their soul defines their Self.

Works Cited
Whitman, Walt. Myself and Mine (1900). Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .
Whitman, Walt. The Singer in the Prison (1900). Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .