Motif Discussion

In this entry I'll be writing about the motif of democratic vision as it appears in “Song of Myself.” This is a broad motif, so I'll be selecting specific examples (since so many images in the poem work toward this effect, and enumerating all of them would be unnecessary) that illustrate the broader motif.

“I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself, 
And what I assume you shall assume, 
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. “ ;

“I loafe and invite my soul...Nature without check with original energy.”

These initial remarks serve to usher in his vision; the poem will be concerned with the self as it contributes to the other, and to the community, small and large (national identity). The trope of democratic vision is exemplified in the inaugural remarks, as the first utterance in the poem of his repeated insistence that I=you. Whitman sets out to dissolve this apparent duality, proposing a unified voice of America, calling for the cessation of division.

His democratic vision of a unified voice for America can be contrasted against the antiquated Augustan ideal that metered poetry is the highest form of art/writing; yet to Walt, certain conventions of poetry, namely a stiff , academic prosody/meter, may have an alienating effect, especially if the meter is more complicated than a ballad. He adjusts, democratizes his poetic form for his vision and audience.

“I am the poet of the woman the same as the man, 
And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man, 
And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men. “

Also, to Walt, bard is equal to slave; no longer does the poet enjoy the most elevated status of a society, but the same status as everyone else. Throughout “Song of Myself,” he offers sympathetic perspectives on marginalized voices, that contextually are experiencing democracy withheld. He harbors slaves at the risk of sedition, yearns for their inclusion into the American democratic tradition. In fact, Walt often mentions slaves consecutively with women, often transposing woman to “mother.” He is fascinated by their reproductive potential, their “fit(ness) for conception.” He dislikes “neuters and geldings.” They are, as mothers, responsible for the diversity Whitman cherishes, responsible for the birth of democracy. For Whitman, what is better than being the mother to all men? He understands the need for greater female inclusion in our American scheme, to which the 29^th bather parable alludes.

"The pure contralto sings in the organ loft

The carpenter dresses his plank, the tongue of his foreplane
whistles its wild ascending lisp... 

And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them,
And such as it is to be of these more or less I am,
And of these one and all I weave the song of myself."

Wilt also democratizes the American experiences with his lists of jobs and scenes. He lends these rich portraits of American life a democratic voice; since each scene is as important and necessary as any other and the next, they are all given equal space. These iterations always confirm his democratic ideology.

This democratic motif, pervasive throughout the poem, suggests a Romantic influence. Romantic interests are evident in exalting low to high (although, for Whitman, everything is high), dialects, and love of nature. He employs these to sustain and enhance his vision of a greater America. Walt's democratic vision leads to, I think, fallacious relativism (if everyone is right, how can we improve? Especially morally.) but is also contextually necessary as Whitman employs it poetically to enact his vision of a truly democratic America.

“I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun...

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.”

The poem ends with Whitman dissolving into and becoming nature, suggesting a greater import for equality than previously imagined; men are equal to not only each other, but also to nature. The poem ends cryptically, on what feels like an unfinished tone (suggesting another departure from the Augustans, who believed poetry should be highly wrought): work remains that must be fulfilled in additional, subsequent steps by the reader, and involve adjustments and revisions of a national consciousness, away from division and unnecessary dispute. This is the ultimate democratic move; what we use the poem for is as equal as Walt's efforts creating it. The creator engages his audience with a task equal to his.

(Other occurrences of thematically linked excerpts:

“I will not have a single person slighted or left away, 
The kept-woman, sponger, thief, are hereby invited, 
The heavy-lipp'd slave is invited, the venerealee is invited; 
There shall be no difference between them and the rest;”

“Through me many long dumb voices,
Voices of the interminable generations of prisoners and slave;”

“ I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of the dogs;”

“The friendly and flowing savage, who is he?...

Wherever he goes men and women accept and desire him;”

“I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames,

clack of sticks cooking my meals …

It shakes mad-sweet pangs through my belly and breast.”