[I celebrate myself, and sing myself] from "Song of Myself," by Walt Whitman

[I celebrate myself, and sing myself] by Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman is considered to be one of America's most significant nineteenth century poets. He was born on Long Island, and grew up in Brooklyn, receiving a limited education. During the span of his life, Whitman held jobs as a printer, a schoolteacher, a reporter, and an editor.He received little critical acclaim during his life for his "openness regarding sex, his self-presentation as a rough-working man, and his stylistic innovations" according to The Longman Anthology of Poetry. Whitman also worked as a clerk in Washington D.C. during the Civil War; his experiences visiting soldiers and dressing wounds inspiring new works of poetry. (information from The Poetry Foundation)

1

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’d 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 back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,

I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,

Nature without check with original energy.

In section one of Walt Whitman’s, “Song of Myself” the speaker, presumably Whitman himself, is praising and rejoicing in his life and the beauty that surrounds him.  Whitman begins the poem with, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself,” giving the audience an initial impression that the poem will be an ode to individualism. Instead, Whitman places importance on recognizing the union of his individual self and universal self, stating, “And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”  He explains that we are all made from the same basic parts, “form’d from this soil, this air, Born here of parents of parents the same, and their parents the same.” 
Whitman further shares with his audience that at “thirty-seven years old” his perfect health and new beginnings have only just begun. In the lines following, he discusses “Creeds and schools and abeyance.” These represent old schools of thought; structured styles of writing that are “never forgotten,” but ones we must abandon in order to fully express the beauty of human thought and originality. This belief in “retiring back” from the old ways is expressed through the use of free verse and the often unashamed explorations of democratic ideals present in Whitman’s writing. He further explains that he wants to rejoice in all aspects of life, both good and bad experiences, because each hold a beauty and energy all their own. He will “permit to speak at every hazard, Nature without check with original energy.”