Walt Whitman s Song Of Myself - 1191 Words

Walt Whitman’s â€Å"Song of Myself† Walt Whitman was an American poet born in May 31, 1819 in New York, and he died in March 26, 1892 in New Jersey. He grew up going to school in separate facilities from people of color, so he was growing up along with the nation. He was self-taught by exploring things for himself, for example, going to the museums when he could. Whitman as a young boy alternated from being in the city to being in the countryside with his grandparents. He was exposed to be being self-reliant at a young age. His writings were influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which lead him to having a collection of unnamed poems, and one of them was â€Å"Song of Myself†. In Walt Whitman’s poem â€Å"Song of Myself†, Whitman managed to express†¦show more content†¦During this movement, the history of the nation was changing. There was slavery and many different cultures from different individuals in the nation. By looking at Walt Whitmanà ¢â‚¬â„¢s â€Å"Song of Myself† poem, the reader can better understand why he came to have his point of views while discovering who he was during this era based off the changing culture in the nation, the religious views towards nature, and the social views on equality among people. In the 1820’s, the nation’s culture was changing because of the Transcendentalism movement influence. In the poem, Whitman begins with â€Å"I celebrate myself, and sing myself† (Whitman, 1330). During this time, the movement was influencing the culture which is shown by Whitman’s first sentence in his poem. The Transcendentalism movement â€Å"took a concern for self-culture, a sense of moral seriousness . . . a tendency toward individualism, a belief in the importance of literature, and an interest in moral reform† (Grodzins). Self-culture is the idea of being self-aware of what ideas to live by which is reflected in Whitman’s poem. Around this time, ther e was a sense of nationalism because of the immigration that was occurring and the expansion of the nation. This idea of self-culture lead to a different views on religion. There were different religions then, since one of the main points of the new nation was to have freedom of religion. This movement allowed for the culture to be more about