Whitman Response

Matt Altstiel
Instructor Lauren Curtwright
Response Paper #3
7/12/05

Whitman’s I Have A Dream Speech

One of the foremost writers of his era, Walt Whitman wrote not only from a personal consciousness, but also from a national as well. Whitman’s first volume of Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, was released during a previously unprecedented era of national upheaval and change. Immigration and national expansion across the continent levels were at all time highs. The fight over the extension of slavery intensified between southerners and northern abolitionists. State rights versus federal rights moved to the forefront of the political landscape when federal laws such as the Fugitive Slave act took away power from State government. In part a response to the conditions of the time, Whitman wrote his master poem, “Song of Myself,” as a nationalistic, democratic poem encouraging the unity, and individual value of each person and component that made up America.

The poem emphasizes over and over that no one man or woman is any more or less valuable than someone else. Whitman addresses the nativists and the immigrants by proclaiming, “One of the great nations, the nation of many nations - the smallest the same and the largest the same,” (Whitman 14). The long established New Englander who has lived there for generation after generation holds the same value as the newly arrived immigrant. Regardless of place or country of origin, both are American in Whitman’s eyes and deserve a spot in the tapestry of American life. Not only does Whitman include the old and the new arrivals a place in the national consciousness, but adds “of every hue and trade and rank, of every caste and rank, not merely of the New World, but of Africa Europe or Asia,” (Whitman 14). Per Whitman, and per the ideals of the United States Constitution, all have a place and a right to pursue their individual desires in America. Every profession and person has something to add to the national wealth.

Whitman empathizes and tries to understand the perspective of every American, the literate and illiterate, slave and free. Whitman attempts to place himself in the shoes of each emotion felt by each person and in doing so make the reader understand the interconnected reality that is America. “I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of the dogs, Hell and despair are upon,” (Whitman 33). Thus, while such an experience is intensely personal and unique, these individual stories frame the collective consciousness of an entire nation.

While Whitman wrote poetry praised by the highest thinkers at the time, he appeals in his words as much to the intellectual as to the working man. In “Song of Myself” he writes of those highest in power in the federal government as well as those cast out by society (such as prostitutes and lunatics). Whitman stresses the unity in nationalism and purpose exclaiming, “these are the thoughts of all men in all ages, it is for the illiterate, it is for the judges of the supreme court, it is for the federal capitol and the state capitols,” (Whitman 15). Furthermore, Whitman directly states his intent in the passage, “I give the sign of democracy; by God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of the same terms,” (Whitman 21). Given such examples, interpreting Whitman’s “Song of Myself” as a democratic poem encouraging national unity and reaffirming individual value is a logical way to analyze the poem.