1) Whitman as a Transcendentalist poet:

2) Song of Myself as thematically and philosophically related to Thoreau's Walden
In the glorification of man and oneness with nature

3) Why did Whitman chooses this kind of verse?

4) What is he celebrating?
He is celebrating himself and by this he celebrates "YOU"; the other. He is also celebrating life as it is.

5) Narcissism and self-centrism are clear aspects of the poem, is it in a positive or negative sense?

6) In what way does it remind you of Thoreau's Walden?

7) What make him sure that his experience would be accepted by others?


Textual issues:

1) Whitman's free verse. You can chart or make a catalogue of the items or the things he mentioned, like: Myself, Soul, Nature …. etc. You can see that he has mentioned hundreds and hundreds of things. He has embodied or collaborated America at large.

2) Walt Whitman intended Leaves of Grass to be a kind of national anthem for the United States, he hoped that all Americans will keep it next to their beds like the Bible. Consider how song of my Self might be a national epic for America, with a new Kind of common man hero?

3) Consider the egotism of "Song of Myself". Whitman focuses attention upon himself, his feelings, his experiences, .. etc, but he also reaches out to other figures like the runaway slave and as will as the reader. Discuss whether these gestures saves him from Narcissism or is it another way of elevating himself?

4) How is democracy represented as a value in Walt Whitman "Song of Myself".