One's Self I Sing
“One’s Self I Sing” is a poem by Walt Whitman, published in 1867 as the first poem for the final phase of Leaves of Grass. Although the general attitude towards the poem was not favorable, in July 1855 Whitman received the famous letter from Ralph Waldo Emerson in appreciation of his words of strength, freedom, and power, as well as, “meets the demand I am always making of what seemed the sterile and stingy Nature.”
As the first phase of Leaves of Grass was published in 1855 most of the press was unaware of the piece, but if there was an opinion about the poem it was mostly negative. According to the Boston Intelligencer, Leaves of Grass was a “heterogeneous mass of bombast, egotism, vulgarity, and nonsense”.
Poem
One’s-Self I sing, a simple, separate person;
Yet utter the word Democratic, the word en-Masse.
Of physiology from top to toe, I sing;
Not physiognomy alone, nor brain alone, is worthy for the Muse
I say the Form complete is worthier far;
The Female equally with the Male I sing.
Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
Cheerful for freest action form’d, under the laws divine,
The Modern Man I sing.
[1]
Meaning
Whitman celebrated the average American and altogether union and equality which differentiates it between stories of the time and of the past. Whitman speaks of individuality in the first lines. The combination of the “one” and the continuing of the “self” throughout the poem can be translated as, “everyman's self”. Whitman also speaks of freedom, identity, and all around brotherhood.
The theme changes in the three lines that follow when he references our spirit and physical body, our sexuality, male and female, and our wisdom. The final lines conclude with the idea of desire, physical and inner strength, and potential. Throughout the entire poem there is disagreement, such as, when the speaker says “simple” in the first line, “simple” meaning “not special,” and finishes the first line with “separate,” followed by the third line of "en-Masse", or togetherness. As the title is, “One’s Self,” not “Myself”, this already forms the bond between the reader and writer which again is what he is conveying in the poem. The final line has the reader caught up in the difference between past heroes and the “modern man” which is just as powerful if one believes that it is so.
Form
The first line is set in regular iambic pentameter, but the flow of the syllables in line two can be called “accentual or anapestic”. Critics noted Whitman’s form of triangular-shaped stanzas beginning with a short line followed by longer lines. Some have understood that starting the poem off with a short line invites the reader to expect “regular” poetry which is more relatable and understandable than Whitman's more experimental form.
Whitman’s third and final phase of Leaves of Grass was also known as the “inscriptions” section.
Biographical background
Whitman’s writing could clarify an inner fight over his sexuality. Whitman wrote many pieces using the idea that he was the sophisticated teacher and the reader his accepting and willing student in which passion and desire transpire.
Notes
- ^ Text of "One's Self I Sing" from 1884 edition of Leaves of Grass, Wilson & McCormick, Glasgow, 1884.
References
- Snodgrass, W.D. (1996). The Southern Review. Pg572. From Literature Resource Center. http://0-go.galegroup.com.librus.hccs.edu/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA18607677&v=2.1&u=txshracd2512&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w (Retrieved Nov. 2nd).
- Smith, F. Lannom (1976). Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Kathy D. Darrow. Vol. 205 Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center. http://0-go.galegroup.com.librus.hccs.edu/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CH1420088174&v=2.1&u=txshracd2512&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w (Retrieved Nov. 2nd).
- Miller, Jr., James E. (1992). Leaves of Grass: America’s Lyric-Epic of Self and Democracy. New York: Twayne Publishers. Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Kathy D. Darrow. Vol 205. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center.
- http://0-go.galegroup.com.librus.hccs.edu/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CH1420088179&v=2.1&u=txshracd2512&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w (Retrieved Nov. 2nd).
- Mirsky, D.S. (1995).Walt Whitman and the World. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. Poetry Criticism. Vol. 91. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center. http://0-go.galegroup.com.librus.hccs.edu/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CH1420086017&v=2.1&u=txshracd2512&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w (Retrieved Nov. 2nd).
- v
- t
- e
(1855–1892)
- "Come Up from the Fields Father" (1865)
- "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" (1855)
- "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day" (1865)
- "I Sing the Body Electric" (1855)
- "A Noiseless Patient Spider" (1891)
- "O Captain! My Captain!" (1865)
- "One Hour to Madness and Joy" (1860)
- "One's Self I Sing" (1867)
- "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" (1859)
- "Patrolling Barnegat" (1856)
- "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" (1865)
- "Prayer of Columbus" (1900)
- "The Sleepers" (1855)
- "Song of Myself" (1855)
- "Song of the Open Road" (1856)
- "This Dust Was Once the Man" (1871)
- "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" (1865)
- List of poems
- Franklin Evans (1842)
- Life and Adventures of Jack Engle (1852)
- Democratic Vistas (1871)
- Passage to India (1871)
- Elegiac Ode (1884)
- Sea Drift (1906)
- A Sea Symphony (1909)
- Ode to Death (1919)
- Morning Heroes (1930)
- Sea Drift (1933)
- Dona nobis pacem (1936)
- Secular Cantata No. 2: A Free Song (1942)
- When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (1946)
- The Wound-Dresser (1989)
- Lilacs (1996)
- Symphony No. 2 (1999)
- Dooryard Bloom (2004)
honoraria
- Walt Whitman Award
- Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln
- Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site
- Walt Whitman House
- The Long Islander
- Walt Whitman Bridge
- Walt Whitman (Davidson)
- Walt Whitman High School (Maryland)
- Walt Whitman High School (New York)
- Walt Whitman Shops
- Whitman-Walker Health