Walt Whitman - the greatest American poet. Hm, I'm not so sure. I feel like I'm supposed to like his poetry, adore his poetry, be enlightened by his poetry, but I don't like it, and I'm not enlightened. In Song of Myself he drones on with very egotistical phrases such as "I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least, Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself." and "You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, but I shall be good health to you nevertheless and filter and fibre your blood." and not to mention the famous "Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself (I am large, I contain multitudes.)" These are but a few of the lines that praise himself almost as a god. The poem is 1,345 lines long and here are the basics of it: I am here; I am everywhere. You are here; you are everywhere. I am you, and you are me. We are everything.
1 comment:
Yes, from what you wrote of the poem, he definitely sounds as though he likes himself very much!
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