Walt Whitman, considered one of the greatest American poets of all time, wrote many forms and books of poetry. One of these books is called "Leaves of Grass," and it is consisted of many long and short poems that deal with one main topic. This topic is the Self. The Self consists of three separate parts that form the real Self of a person. These three parts are the spirital soul, the personal self (how one sees oneself), and the Everyman self (how everyone is connected and how other people see oneself). Walt Whitman explores the meaning of Self through all these poems.
The Everyman self is the idea that everyone in the world is connected, to friends, family, to everyone, even God. Whitman believed that there was a small piece of divinity in everyone (Bloom). Because of this, everyone was connected to each other, and were able to share in each other's lives and understand each other's lives. This idea of the Everyman is present in one of Walt Whitman's poems, "To A Certain Cantatrice," part of the book, "Leaves of Grass." This poem is listed below.
"HERE, take this gift,
I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or general,
One who should serve the good old cause, the great idea, the prog-
ress and freedom of the race,
Some brave confronter of despots, some daring rebel;
But I see that what I was reserving belongs to you just as much as
to any" (Whitman).
When looking into one of Walt Whitman's poems, one has to go line by line, word by word, to get a deeper meaning than what merely surfaces. First, we look at the title, "To A Certain Cantatrice." A cantatrice is a professional female singer (Random). The title could merely imply that he is talking about the common person in entertainment, showing a form of the Everyman self, however, Whitman goes deeper into this throughout the poem. In the first lines, Whitman says that he is giving someone, perhaps the cantatrice, a gift that he was originally saving for a person of authority. The gift is not the main topic or theme; it does not necessarily represent something of value or something specific. It is just an object mentioned in his poem. The last lines are the lines that lend themselves to the definition of Everyman and Self.
"...One who should serve the good old cause, the great idea, the prog-
ress and freedom of the race,
Some brave confronter of despots, some daring rebel;
But I see that what I was reserving belongs to you just as much as
to any" (Whitman).
In these lines, Walt Whitman says that he was going to give his gift to someone great--maybe a rebel, a military personel, someone who relates to the American people and their want of freedom "...the progress and freedom of the race..." (Whitman). This reference to America shows that he is using the Everyman idea to relate all of America and the people in it to each other. "...But I see that what I was reserving belongs to you just as much as to any" (Whitman). This demonstrates Whitman's Everyman idea because, even though he was saving his gift for someone special, he gave it away; but it was not lost to just anyone. He was still giving it to that special person, because that special person is apart of everyone, including the receiver of his gift. While giving it away to a common person, perhaps the cantatrice, he gives it away to the general, the rebel, the hero, or the speaker. Everyone is connected and has similar qualities that connect them, so giving a gift to one is similar to giving a gift to another. That is why this poem shows Walt Whitman's idea of Self, including the idea of the Everyman belief.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold, ed. "Bloom on Walt Whitman." Walt Whitman, Bloom's Major Poets. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BMPWW01&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 1, 2011).
Random House Dictionary, comp. "Cantatrice." Def. 1. Random House, Inc. 2011. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, LLC., 2011. Web. 1 Mar. 2011.
Whitman, Walt. "To A Certain Cantatrice." Leaves of Grass (1891-1892). The Whitman Archive. Ed Folsom & Kenneth M. Price, 1995. Web. 1 Mar. 2011.
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