Walt Whitman's Song Of The Open Road

The Enlightenment

According to Generation Zs to be an American means to have freedom and to be able to make choices that will benefit you, your family and your nation. Walt Whitman shares a similar view of being an american in his poem Song Of The Open Road written in 1856.

The prevalence of Hegelianism in Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is indisputable, yet a consensus on the meaning remains elusive, and therefore, insidious to the democratic progress Whitman attempts. Whitman uses Hegel to support his ideas about the dialectical theory of consciousness, the spiritualization and importance of art, and America’s manifest destiny. I later elucidate on these categories and break them down into more precise ideas. I use a variety of scholars for evidence of structural, social, artistic, and spiritual relations in Whitman 's “Song of Myself” and Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Spirit; however, instead of celebrating these achievements, I will focus on the risk of using Hegel as a way to interpret Whitman. I point out the reasons for both Whitman and Hegel failing to grasp any actual use on their thoughts on consciousness. Then I proceed to explain why it is better to focus on Whitman’s view on art without using Hegel. Lastly, I showcase the dangers of Whitman using Hegel’s ideas for democratic means.

An essay written by philosopher Immanuel Kant answers the question, “What is Enlightenment?” Through his own observations and he concluded “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity… the inability to use one own understanding without the guidance of another (Kant).” Kant also recognized that he lives in an enlightened age however not in the age of enlightenment. The same can also provoke thoughts about the current state of the world now. In Kant’s eyes, although he provided the blueprint to enlightenment, no one seems to follow it (Kant). In this paper, I will argue that Kant not only stood correctly about the enlightenment, but society chose not to follow his instructions; precisely, through the unrestricted use

In section fifteen of Walt Whitman’s poem Song of Myself, Whitman makes working Americans the subject of most of his sentences while sparingly using concepts, instead of people, as subjects on other sentences. Most of the non-living subjects are closely tied to the concepts of Life and Death, Time, and Nature. By using nonliving conceptual subjects to contrast concrete images of working Americans, he demonstrates that though working Americans control society, Life and Death, Time, and Nature control working Americans.

Potential is something in which all human beings possess; many, however, are oblivious to these latent qualities which can be found within themselves. Sadly, many people live their lives without knowing what they are actually capable of. By realizing one’s true potential, an individual is more likely to accomplish bigger and better things. The highly valued author Walt Whitman describes this idea in many of his inspirational poems. He scrutinizes the hidden potential everyone retains inside themselves and stresses its importance and impact it could have on everyone’s lives.

Taking my personal perspective into consideration, I would like to briefly discuss some enlightenments I have learned from the article and how these enlightenments could be applied to my life at present and in the future, by focusing on the combination of the

Title- The song of myself sounds like a poem of self expression, and a gospel of Walt Whitman's’ self beliefs. When his optimistic outlook on life is brought into perspective, one could also conclude that the poem was about his positive and radical outlook on life, because it is a song of himself, his personal expression.

A system in which a person has a heard voice among the state is considered a democracy. In addition, that person has the right to vote in order to voice his/her opinion. An individual has the ability to achieve his/her personal spiritual state without being told what to believe in. In the transcendentalist work, “Song of Myself,” Whitman voiced his thoughts even though he would contradict himself. His life was lived in a democratic way, which appealed to those around him. Whitman’s democratic view determined his set of beliefs through his own intuition on life.

Walt Whitman is considered by many to be one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century. Whitman grew up in New York and was a member of a large family, having eight siblings. Only four of these siblings lived to adulthood. His father was an alcoholic, which led to Whitman becoming more like a father-figure than a brother to his siblings. Whitman quit school at the age of eleven. He then worked as a journalist, as a carpenter, as a teacher, and as an editor before focusing on poetry. Whitman is most well-known for his book of poems, Leaves of Grass. Whitman could not find a publisher interested in his poems; therefore, he published them himself. Whitman rereleased this collection of poems several times, each time with the addition of

Leaves on Grass is collection of poems written by an American poet named Walt Whitman. The first edition was published in 1855 but, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and rewriting Leaves of Grass, until his death in 1892 at the age of 72. Even though during the time his work was considered immoral later people began to realize the beauty behind his poems and started to appreciate the man who wrote them.Whitman 's Leaves of Grass is iconic in American poetry because of the beauty behind its poems as well as the legacy it left behind. The poems do not rhyme or follow standard rules for meter and line length. Among the poems in the collection are "Song of Myself", "I Sing the Body Electric", "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking". Later editions included Whitman 's elegy to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom 'd".

In the poem “Song of Myself” from the collection Leaves of Grass by the poet Walt Whitman, his interpretation of “the grass” is that it’s a child of nature and vegetation. Whitman insists that it’s a piece of the universe and is a part of nature, which we all share. This is important because it presents the grass as a vegetation of a universal thing. This affects the whole question because it proposes an idea or even truth of “the grass”. Furthermore the poet argues “I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic.../ sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones”. In other words, it explains “the grass as a forever growing thing in nature. In sum, this places the whole idea in a place of the universe. Over all this tells the age

What is Enlightenment?, an explication that was written in 1784 in Prussia by the philosopher Immanuel Kant, discusses the principles that he deems to be truths surrounding significant topics such as freedom, reason, and an individual’s and/or societal necessity to be fully mature, in terms that he described as being scholar. Here, what is most evident is the reality that while he perceived the society as being unprepared to be fully mature, he nevertheless held faith on his belief that an age is fast approaching when societies will truly exhibit advances that will benefit them not only in political terms, but more so in their spiritual beliefs. As such, the importance of this particular literary

In Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, the poet showcases his feelings of people and himself by using literary descriptors to convey his thoughts on these and various other subjects. In section 20, Whitman’s purpose is to showcase self-assuredness regardless of what the world tries to state otherwise by maintaining his resolute happiness in being himself. This is what sets him apart from being like the other people in the world.

Walt Whitman, a civil war nurse was a self-taught poet in the 1800s. Whitman is known for using lists, anaphora, free verse, and other literary devices in his poems. In his works, he focuses on American workers, diversity, transcendent approaches to nature, and individualism. “Song of Myself,” a poem written by Whitman, explores themes of nature, sex, democracy, and spirituality. Whitman uses nature to fuel his creativity in using grass as a symbol of comparison to life by using imagery, metaphors, and analogies.