Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass: Portraying the Egotistical Poet, Enamored with Himself
“Although Whitman may seem to celebrate and sympathize the selfless connectedness of humanity and nature, his poetry implicitly reveals an egotistical poet, enamoured with himself.”
To what extent is this opinion a valid evaluation of Whitman’s poetry—as revealed in his collection, Leaves of Grass? Use several poems to support your answer.
It is a tendency for poets to express individual thought to manifest a particular view, usually commenting on humanity. In doing so, poets cause us to reflect on our nature which then contributes in establishing a link between us and the poem. In his collection of poems titled Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman exposes us to his view towards humans and nature through the recurring idea of connectedness in several of his poems. Thematically, Whitman seems to equate all humans to each other and suggests that humans and nature derive from the equivalent creative force and thus are all interconnected. The thesis, “although Whitman may seem to celebrate and sympathize the selfless connectedness of humanity and nature, his poetry implicitly reveals an egotistical poet, enamoured with himself”, is a valid evaluation of Whitman’s poetry only to a reasonably small extent. This is because by “egotistical poet, enamoured with himself”, the thesis assumes that the poetry’s sole focus in more on the poet rather than his overall purpose and Whitman’s intent is not to reveal his egotistical self but to extend to a broad audience as he demonstrates with evidence of poetic techniques like repetition, namely anaphora and pronoun use, and cataloging. At first, Whitman’s poetry seems as though it reveals his egotistical self, but the thesis is not entirely a valid evaluation of all his poems because Whitman actually writes so that his audience is inclusive, so that he is enamoured not only with himself but with all humans and nature. In his poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”, Whitman employs repetition to express the idea that all humans are
To what extent is this opinion a valid evaluation of Whitman’s poetry—as revealed in his collection, Leaves of Grass? Use several poems to support your answer.
It is a tendency for poets to express individual thought to manifest a particular view, usually commenting on humanity. In doing so, poets cause us to reflect on our nature which then contributes in establishing a link between us and the poem. In his collection of poems titled Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman exposes us to his view towards humans and nature through the recurring idea of connectedness in several of his poems. Thematically, Whitman seems to equate all humans to each other and suggests that humans and nature derive from the equivalent creative force and thus are all interconnected. The thesis, “although Whitman may seem to celebrate and sympathize the selfless connectedness of humanity and nature, his poetry implicitly reveals an egotistical poet, enamoured with himself”, is a valid evaluation of Whitman’s poetry only to a reasonably small extent. This is because by “egotistical poet, enamoured with himself”, the thesis assumes that the poetry’s sole focus in more on the poet rather than his overall purpose and Whitman’s intent is not to reveal his egotistical self but to extend to a broad audience as he demonstrates with evidence of poetic techniques like repetition, namely anaphora and pronoun use, and cataloging. At first, Whitman’s poetry seems as though it reveals his egotistical self, but the thesis is not entirely a valid evaluation of all his poems because Whitman actually writes so that his audience is inclusive, so that he is enamoured not only with himself but with all humans and nature. In his poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”, Whitman employs repetition to express the idea that all humans are