Discuss Walt Whitman Use of Symbols in ‘Song of Myself

Whitman’s poetry is highly symbolical, because he believes that true art is suggestive, and that requires great painstaking labor on the part of the readers to understand and appreciate it. Moreover he wants to communicate to his readers his own perception of  (i) the essential ‘oneness’ or the ‘identity of all’ (ii) the spiritual reality that exists at the back of the material world, and (iii) ‘the fluidity’ or ‘liquidity’ of what seems to be solid and concrete. Obviously, the poetry of such a poet is bound to be extremely symbolic.

‘Song of Myself’ is perhaps one of the most remarkable poems of Whitman, memorable for its powerful and significant use of symbols. The major symbols, used here are ‘I’, ‘the grass’, ‘the journey’, ‘body’, ‘soul’, ‘plants’, ‘animals’, ‘heavenly bodies’, etc. The ‘I’ or self is perhaps the single most important symbol in ‘Song of Myself’. The ‘I’ does not stand for the poet alone. It symbolizes the modern American, the modern man, or even Every man. It signifies a fusion of several characters, a composite character, which exists at no place other than in the poem. It also symbolizes the natural propensities in man and thus it stands for all. As the poet has an overwhelming feeling of the ‘Oneness of all’, the ‘I’ may even symbolize a soldier on the battlefield, or a comet rushing through the heavens. At other times the ‘I’ signifies the composite self on its quest of reality; it becomes the traveler exploring the universe and thus it stands for all humanity undergoing the experience of the universe.

 In ‘Song of Myself’ Whitman has symbolically used ‘body’ for physical enjoyment and ‘soul’ for spiritually. He sings both of the body and the soul because for him both are equally pure and holy. The poet intends to enjoy the bliss of heaven by taking care of his spirit. But he would also transfigure or purify the physical and the sensuous and thus minimize the pain and suffering which is the lot of the human beings on earth. Thus he has given a new meaning and significance to the physical and the sensuous.

In section 6 Whitman uses ‘grass’ symbol which brings out the optimistic and hopeful nature of the poet: ‘The smallest sprout shows there is really no death.’ He is so optimistic that he believes that death is merely a transformation, and not an end of life as is generally supposed.

In section 51 and 52 the journey symbolizes the process by which the soul achievers it identity with the Divine. The poet calls his brothers and sisters (listeners) to come with him on his mystical journey, to have a mystical trance, and gain insight and wisdom like him.

To sum up, as a symbolist, Whitman wished to abolish distinctions between the subjective and objective worlds and accepted the doctrine that universe may be understood through the sensations and intuition of the poet.