Walt Whitman's "One's-Self I Sing"

One’s-Self I sing, a simple separate person,

Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

 

Of physiology from top to toe I sing,

Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say the

                Form complete is worthier far,

The Female equally with the Male I sing.

 

Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,

Cheerful, for freest action formed under the laws divine,

The Modern Man I sing.

 

1. The speaker is a purposeful commentator, announcing his plans and stating fundamental beliefs.
   
2. The speaker is addressing the reader directly, almost conversationally.
   
3. I respond to the speaker as a student to a professor on the first day of class.  A bit of hope and expectation after a holistic introduction.
   
4. The setting is “modern,” which seems to focus on the new understanding of man as a fusion of mind and body, at the end of the Victorian era.
   
5. Speaking the poem aloud helps capture the rhythm and pulse of the poem.  Especially the “passion, pulse, and power,” which captures the beating heart of the individual.
   
6. The poem is paraphrased in the opening and closing lines, which address the topic of self, separate and distinct and defined as “Modern Man.”
   
7. The title of the poem is a statement of intent.  Whitman is declaring his intention to define the Modern Man as a unique individual, part of a larger whole.
   
8. The theme is directly presented, both in the opening and closing paragraph.  The fills out the definition of the individual and his context in the universe.
   
9. There are no direct allusions, but indirect allusion to Democratic governments and the “Modern” man emphasize the relationship to modern forms of nationhood and the “laws divine” place the subject under God.
   
10. The diction has an academic tone, with intermixed alliteration for emphasis.  A positive tone permeates the verse, the words giving a sense of standing on the edge of a new world.
    
11. The “laws divine” is a figure of speech referring to God, and “top to toe” an indirect reference to the human body.
    
12. The symbolic meanings of “Democratic” and “En-Masse” refer to forms of government that empower the individual.  The use of the French term refers the founders of Democracy and the change that brought to the world, abolishing the era of monarchy and tribalism and paving the way for the Modern age.
    
13. This poem does not use irony.  It is direct and clear in meaning.
    
14. The tone is consistently positive.  On the cusp of change from ignorance to knowledge.
    
15. The poem uses alliteration heavily: “simple separate person,” and “passion, pulse, and power,” and “top to toe.”
    
16. A melodic rhythm is used with soft rhyming between lines using similar words “physiognomy” and “physiology,” “female” and “male.”  The pleasant sounds carry the reader out of the mundane daily life and into a bright and shiny future.
    
17. The lines have a varying meter that lends to a dynamic rhythm with alternating longer and shorter lines which pulse the tempo.
    
18. The overall structure of the poem does not follow any established form.  Its free-form nature helps it to break away from the rigid structure of the past and into the modern age, almost like Jazz did for music.
    
19. The language of the poem is simple and straightforward.  Easy to understand and yet touched with science and depth of meaning.
    
20. I enjoyed the poem.  I was drawn to the core message of equality, unity of mind and body, and the power of the individual in society.
    
21. I think that this poem could benefit from a biographical study of Whitman and a historical analysis of the time when it was written.
    
22. Whitman seems filled to the brim, bursting with the joy of his ideas of Modern Man, anticipating how these ideas will change the world for the better.  Understanding his life, and his other poetry would help place this poem in context.  Is it a coda or an introduction?
    
23. The world was undergoing great change at the end of the 19^th century, and Whitman seems to have captured the American sense of individuality in many of his poems.
    
24. My own beliefs strongly affect my understanding of this poem.  The ideas it describes are core to my own individuality (with the exception of the divine component).
    
25. My initial analysis left out the longer lines, which, upon re-inspection provide further depth to my original interpretation.  The “Form complete is worthier far,” and “for freest action formed under the laws divine,” are less clear but still concentrate on the mind-body union and Freedom as a god-given right respectively.
    
26. The most useful interpretation of this poem is as a summation of the founding societal principals that marked the Modern, post-Victorian era.  This interpretation, coincidentally, is similar to the feeling I got from Heart of Darkness, which use introspection and extremism to comment on the negative sides of the Modern era in contrast to Whitman’s positive vision.

(*) The photo is called "Snow Shadows," an ephemeral springtime phenomenon.