An Annotation of Section 24 of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself

An Annotation of Section 24 of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself

Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is a vision of the American spirit, a vision of Whitman himself. It is his cry for democracy, giving each of us a voice through his poetry. Each of us has a voice and desires, and this is Whitman's representation of our voices, the voice of America. America, the great melting pot, was founded for freedom and democracy, and this poem is his way of re-instilling these lost American ideals. In this passage from "Song of Myself" Whitman speaks through his fellow man and speaks for his fellow man when his voice is not socially acceptable to be heard.

The links from the poem below are best read in order from the beginning of the poem to the end.

Song of Myself

by Walt Whitman

24

Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son,

Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding,

No sentimentalist, no stander above men and women or apart from them,

No more modest than immodest.

Unscrew the locks from the doors!

Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!

Whoever degrades another degrades me,

And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.

Through me the afflatus surging and surging, through me the current and index.

I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of democracy,

By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.

Through me many long dumb voices,

Voices of the interminable generations of prisoners and slaves,

Voices of the diseas'd and despairing and of thieves and dwarfs,

Voices of cycles of preparation and accretion,

And of the threads that connect the stars, and of wombs and of the father-stuff,

And of the rights of them the others...

... middle of paper ...

...ince God created nature sex is a natural part of life. Whitman is again making a connection between society's values and nature. What is accepted and what is not. Whitman broke through society's inhibitions of candidly talking about sex by writing about it in his poetry. Because Whitman had a prominent voice in the Nineteenth century, he was able to express his views on such controversial issues.

Whitman is giving a more graphic example of how sex is a natural thing. By comparing the act of reproduction to death he shows just how natural of an act sex is. Everything that is born will eventually die. He feels that the natural curiosities of the human sexual appetites should not be denied or not discussed because of social standards. Not only is sex a "miracle" that is a part of him, but also nature and the universe, and each individual part should be celebrated.