I sing to myself, an immortal poem

Walt Whitman managed to shake the men of his time with his poems. “I sing to myself” is an immortal work that today we have the pleasure of bringing and presenting to you.

Walt Whitman was an extraordinary American poet, who revolutionized the world of words during his time.. Above all, with his poem I sing to myself. Although he was born into a very poor family and had no education, from an early age he felt a deep love for letters.

Whitman began his career as a journalist, but at the age of 29 he decided to dedicate himself completely to poetry.. The most interesting thing about his work is that he uses free verse and simple language, something totally unusual for his time. This character was also a volunteer nurse during the civil war, a government employee and a sharp and cutting political essayist.

I sing to myself

Whitman’s greatest work is Leaves of Grassa collection of poems that still amaze readers today. his poem I sing to myself It is a tribute to hope and a call to self-love and freedom.. Here are the best asides from that jewel of universal poetry.

In Song of Myself the self is exalted, and through the individual one accesses knowledge of the world and the things that exist in it. Whitman begins his journey through poetry, determining the place we occupy in the cosmos and investigating the interactions we have with others, with our Soul, with history and with Nature.

The work of this poet addresses one of the deepest desires of our human condition: to relate lovingly and erotically with everything: with ourselves, with others, with the body, with nature and the world.

The first part of Singing to Myself

I celebrate and sing to myself.

And what I say about myself now, I say about you,

because what I have you have

and every atom of my body is yours too.

I wander… and I invite my soul to wander.

I wander and lie down as I please on the earth

to see how the summer grass grows.

My tongue and every molecule of my blood were born here,

of this land and these winds.

I was begotten by parents who were born here,

of parents who begot other parents who were born here,

of fathers, children of this land and of these winds too.

I’m thirty-seven years old. My health It’s perfect.

And with my pure breath

I start singing today

and I will not finish my song until I die.

Let the schools and creeds be silent now.

Back. To your place.

I know what my mission is and I will not forget it;

let no one forget it.

But now I offer my breast to both good and evil,

I let everyone speak without restriction,

and I open wide the doors to the original energy of unbridled nature

In this first part of the poem I sing to myselfWhitman exalts his own existence. The enjoyment of one’s own body, with all its greatness and limitations. The importance of origin, of roots, as a primary source of personal identity. It represents, as the name of the poem indicates, a praise to one’s own being, to existence.

Second part of the poem

(…)

I like to feel the loving push of the roots

across the land,

the beat of my heart,

the blood that floods my lungs,

the pure air that refreshes them

in large inspirations and expirations.

I like to sniff the green leaves

and the dry leaves,

the blackish rocks of the beach

and the hay that is stacked in the haystacks.

I like to hear the scandal of my voice, forging words that are lost in the swirls of the wind.

I like to kiss,

embrace

and reach the hearts of all men with my arms.

I like to see the play of lights and shadows between the trees when the breeze shakes the branches.

I like to feel alone among the crowds of the city,

in the steppes

and on the sides of the hill.

I like to feel strong and healthy under the full moon

and get up singing happily to greet the sun.

What did you believe?

What would I settle for a thousand hectares of nothing land?

further?

Did you think the whole earth would be too much for me?

Why have you learned to read if you don’t already know how to interpret my poems?

This second part of the poem refers to the unity between human beings and nature. It is a unity that goes far beyond extracting usefulness from everything around us. On the contrary, it is rather about the unity that arises from deep contemplation, from achieving a sincere appreciation of life and nature in all its manifestations. A contemplation that implies satisfaction and joy and that allows all the senses to be applied.

Read Also: Are there people “without personality”?

Whitman also refers to the feeling of unity with other human beings. Hence he states “I like to kiss / hug / and reach the hearts of all men with my arms.” What is expressed there is a deep need to feel part of humanity, a recognition that the other is an equal, someone who lives in one, and in whom one also lives.

eighteenth part

XVIII

With a roar of music I come,

with bugles and drums.

My marches do not sound only for the victorious,

but for the defeated and the dead too.

Everyone says: it is glorious to win a battle.

Well I say it’s so glorious to lose her.

Battles are lost with the same spirit that they are won!

Hooray for the dead!

Let me blow into the horns, loud and happy, for them.

Hooray for those who fell,

for the ships that sank in the sea,

and for those who perished drowned!

Hooray for the generals who lost the

combat and for all the defeated heroes!

The infinite unknowns are worth as much as the greatest heroes in history.

This part of I sing to myself It is a beautiful tribute to the fight. Hence Whitman affirms that he who wins in a battle is as glorious as he who loses. With this he wants to imply that what is truly valuable is not achieving victory, but rather fighting for the cause in which one believes.

The poem says “Battles are lost in the same spirit as they are won!” This is very true on various occasions. Many times defeat does not depend on the effort or determination put into the fight, but on circumstances. or adverse moments. It is not for nothing that Borges says that “defeat has a dignity that victory does not know.”

Read Also: 3 Things All Successful Relationships Share

These claims were unconventional in Whitman’s time. They are part of the spirit of modernity, which was barely hinted at in his time. A more skeptical and free spirit than that of the romantics and, for that reason, strongly questioned at the beginning.

Twenty-fourth part

XXIV

(…)

Copulation has the same rank as death.

I believe in meat and appetites.

The view,

the ear,

the touch…

They are miracles.

And every particle,

every appendage of mine

It is a miracle.

I am divine inside and out

and I sanctify everything I touch

and everything that touches me:

The smell of my armpits is as fine as that of a prayer;

and this head of mine

It is worth more than the churches,

the bibles

and the creeds.

These sections of the poem generated great controversy at the time.. Equating “copulation” with “death” was nothing short of an insult. However, in more recent times many authors have spoken about the sensation of disappearing, or dying, that is implicit in an orgasm. At the same time, it also talks about the seduction that death and the ideas associated with it exert on many human beings.

In any case, Whitman’s main purpose is to show that the body is as “sacred” as what many call the “soul.” That through the senses you can also live deep experiences that are as valid as mental experiences. In this way, a rejection of idealistic ways of looking at life is consolidated.

Whitman is, without a doubt, a current poet who has much to say to the men and women of our time. “Song of Myself” is an eternal poem, in which each verse was thought and felt to exalt self-love. and that miracle that is life.