美国浪漫主义时期诗歌欣赏

Choose one romantic poet and make your comment on one of his/her poem.

Song of Myself

Walt Whitman

Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. He spoke highly of inpidualism and self-affirmation . “Song of Myself” is one of the most popular of all Walt Whitman’s poems and is included in Whitman’s spectacular poetry collection Leaves of Grass.

Throughout his poetry, Whitman praised the inpidual. He imagined a democratic nation as a unified whole composed of unique but equal inpiduals. “Song of Myself” opens in a triumphant paean to the inpidual: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself”.

But strictly speaking, in “Song of Myself”, Whitman is not writing about himself. Many of the experiences recorded in the poem are purely imaginary. His aim is to embrace the whole human experience by means of imaginative sympathy, which Whitman possessed to an extraordinary degree, and enables him to identify himself with all sorts and conditions of men. He fraternizes with all; their interests are his. All men and women, moreover, are potentially equal in the sight of Whitman.

“Song of Myself” is perhaps the most thoroughly democratic poem in American literature. His style is simple and natural, without such nonterminating as conventional rime or meter, hence it must have an organic growth like a perfect animal or tree, in which each part is propositional and harmonious with the whole.

To sum it up, by reading this long poem I have a overall understanding about Song of Myself. In this poem, he taught us how to treat people equally, how to respect nature and ourselves, and that we should always be optimistic about life, both current and future, no matter what the outside world is, just believe in ourselves.

专业：英语专业 学号：B12123104 姓名：王利莹