Read this when
Song of Myself
Whitman in 1855: stop apologising for being a lot. I contain multitudes. 🌱
Who it's for
The poem speaks to the reader directly and keeps insisting that what the speaker claims for himself belongs equally to the reader, so a shame-bound reader is invited to borrow a voice of unapologetic self-acceptance before they can produce it themselves.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Song of Myself is Walt Whitman's long free-verse poem, first published untitled in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass and revised across later editions. Its expansive first-person speaker stands in for all people, moving through catalogues of everyday American life and workers while celebrating the body, the self, equality and the connection between all living things.
Where to find it
Public domain in the US; free on Project Gutenberg (in Leaves of Grass), Standard Ebooks, the Walt Whitman Archive and the Poetry Foundation website, with free LibriVox audio. Also in print in any Lea.
Before you start
Heads up: Brief scenes of war death and a massacre.
Age: Ages 16+
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”
