Whitman Language of the Self

In Walt Whitman's poems, he always tried to identify self. He tried to identify the idea of self, not just to him, but to all the people in the world. He tried to identify self into different topics. There is soul. This stands for the spiritual side of a person. There is also the personal self. This deals with the characteristics of who a person is. He uses soul to reply most of his ideas of self. He uses a lot of analogies to define what his ideas of being spiritual to yourself. "Whitman coveted logical scandals, for without contradiction Whitman could not assert the paradoxical unity of the spiritual self and the material word, nor could he coalesce his own conflicting desires into a unified identity." (Bauerlein). This means that he talks and uses the spiritual side of life to pertains how to find self in Walt Whitman's poems. To show that he uses self for the idea of personality, Mark Bauerlein "To express a self. To display a "Personality" "uncompromisingly" with a limpid style, a transparent form that ardently renders an identity in all its plenitude and immediacy." (Bauerlein). This shows greatness within the poems of Whitman. Personality is very important to define a persons self. My personality is important to me because it tells me and others who I am and who I will be. When Mark Bauerlein was talking about how the writing affected the life of Walt Whitman himslef, he said, "Writing can never satisfy Whitman's desire to soothe his psychic insecurity, for in re-reading his poems for signs of self-acquaintance, he can only find an alienated, lost, impoverished version of himself." (Bauerlein). I see how that would be true. Writers write to relieve pressure and because they feel like they have something to state, even if they do not have a purpose at the time. The writers have to go back sometimes to identify for themselves what they are writing. Whitman uses what he thinks self is in his poems.


Bauerlein, Mark. "Whitman's Language of the Self." American Imago 44, no. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts on File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/ (accessed January 20, 2010).