A couple of weeks ago, as we were finishing up discussing Song of Myself, we created a list of what we imagined the self was in the poem. This was also a discussion of how Whitman was portrayed in the poem. In the later class, this is the list we created:

  • Walt Whitman
  • A Kosmos
  • A translator
  • A witness
  • A representative
  • A profit
  • The body as part of the self
  • Collective
  • Arrogant
  • Egotistical
  • Fluid/multiple/changing
  • Powerful
  • Divine
  • Nature
  • A friend
  • Teacher
  • Something to be celebrated
  • Everlasting or outlasting or eternal
  • A seen/unseen guide
  • Physical
  • Blunt
  • Oracle (for those who cannot speak)
  • Empathetic

Now that we have read Calamus, part of Children of Adam, Drum-Taps, and several of Whitman’s other poems and descriptions of the war, what would you add or remove from this list? (If you were in the earlier class, feel free to add any descriptions that you came up with during that class that are not labeled here.) With each addition or subtraction from the list, what is the reasoning/example poem behind it?

Ever-Changing Whitman

49 thoughts on “Ever-Changing Whitman”

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