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SPARACIO | Song of the College-Self
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Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” begins with the line, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself,” a line that has stuck with me since I first read the poem. But what does it mean? Whitman, a Long Islander who liked the sound of the ocean waves, first published “Song of Myself” in 1855, meditating on the interconnectedness of all individual beings. He muses on diversity of American life and attempts to weave the country together by conveying the idea of unity in diversity and stressing an ethic of care for one another and for the world we inhabit. The poem, split into 52 sections, was revised throughout his lifetime, reflecting Whitman’s unique approach to poetry: one that reflects the transitory and sometimes random nature of life itself.