Week 8 Analysis

This week I will be doing a literary analysis on What Whitman' poem "Song of Myself". In this this poem he uses the literary devices like symbolism, imagery, first person, and style. He uses symbolism and imagery through out the whole poem to explain how he sees the world .Like in the beginning of his poem he describes a piece of grass in a way that it reminds him of a spear, he this a lot thought out his poem. Also there are times that he decries or explains something in first person, you can tell this clearly because he use the word I to show this feeling, emotion, or whatever is coming form him personally. He uses this style were he i just speaking to you but it gives off this kind of transcending or higher plain of thinking. The theme in his poem is the identity of self and he breaks it down into three sub themes. The first is the idea of the self, the second the identification of ones self with other selves, and the last the poet's relationship with the elements of nature and the universe. What this symbolizes to me is this idea of trying to figure out who you are and what that means, as well as how do i fit into society as well as my purpose in it. Also the part about the universe and the elements he talks about are such big picture question. I think this works very well as a metaphor for him trying to explain what everyone one has thought about at one point or multiple points in there lives. Like I said before he use I when he is talking in his poem but I also think he means us the reader. I know I read a little background before I read his peom that said Whitman favored an internal spirituality over formal religious doctrines. After reading this poem you see very clearly that this influences his writing style and what he writes about.