Song of Myself by Whitman

If I could live each day feeling as Walt Whitman feels in his first section of Song of Myself, I would be a much happier person. His lyrics are so cheerful and optimistic that you can’t help but feel better about life in general as you read on. “I celebrate myself, and sing myself;” his opening line summarizes his dominating theme for the rest of the poem, which is to be yourself and love every atom of that being. Another important theme of the poem brought up in section 1 is “hoping to cease not till death.” Whitman demands that he doesn’t give up on living until living itself has given up on him, and he once again returns to the nature which he was born out of.

Section 4 is one of my favorites because of its lyrical beauty, but it also has an incredible message of itself in this poem. “These come to me days and nights and go from me again, but they are not the Me myself.” Whitman lists all the things in the world that we live with every single day, things that influence and affect our opinions or personality of ourselves, but he finishes by saying these things he sees or learns are not him, nor will he let them become apart of himself. Whitman believes in doing his own thing and being true to himself till the very end, never letting an outside force change him.

“A child said What is the grass?” In section 6, Whitman explores his theories on nature. He discusses the many possibilities of grass, saying it could be “the handkerchief of the Lord” or even “the babe of vegetation.” However, it is his final realization that brings about another one of his themes; Death is not scary, but a part of nature. He talks about how the grass is the beautiful uncut hair of graves, and all who die return to the ground that their mothers bore them from. In this same theme, he teaches how death isn’t scary because it isn’t the end, it’s just your replacement in the circle of life. We are born from our mothers, we live our life, and then we are buried and live as a part of the grass for all to remember us. “They are alive and well somewhere, the smallest sprout shows there is really no death.” He closes this section by saying, “All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, and to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.” The circle of life is never ending and