SONG OF MYSELF

Walt Whitman

SONG OF MYSELF

WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892), The people's poet is perhaps the most individualistic literary figure that America has ever produced. He began working as a carpenter before his twelfth birthday. He also worked as a printer. teacher and editor and was volunteer nurse during the civil war.Whitman's Poetry. All of which is collected in Leaves of Grass, is known for its free rhythms and lack of rhyme.

Whitman first published it at his own expense in 1855.However the free form of the poems and the joyful dedications to the importance of the individual were not received at first. In fact his collection of poems cost Whitman his Job , as it was taken to be obscene. In 1881, after many editions, Leaves of Grass finally found a publisher willing to print it uncensored. Translations of his collection were enthusiastically received in Europe,but Whitman remained relatively unappreciated in America. It was only after his death that he could win appreciation in America for his original and innovative expression of American individualism. His important works include Leaves of grass (1855) and Drum Taps(1866).

SONG OF MYSELF

 

I Celebrate myself,and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,

I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass

My tongue,every atom of my blood, form parent's from this soil, this air,

Born here of parents, born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
I, now thirty - seven years old in perfect health begin,

Hoping to cease not till death,

Creeds and schools in abeyance, 

Retiring bach a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,

I harbour for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.