Song of Myself - Walt Whitman

Rating: ★★★★
09/02/14

Okay. This is a good start. I don't know if I will ever read Leaves of Grass. I wish to, but something tells me I won't be doing that any time soon. However, I liked this poem. There's so much optimism in here that I thought I could never relate to it. And I was right... Still, I enjoyed reading this. I mean, he lost me during some verses, but after a couple of seconds and a sip of coffee, I was ready to keep

going; there are a lot of beautiful lines waiting to be appreciated.

I think I could turn and live with animals, they're so placid

and self-contain'd,

I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of

owning things,

Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands

of years ago,

Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

*

Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself,

(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Multitudes!

Note to self: Read a bit more about transcendentalism in order to fully understand this.