Whitman mentioned at the beginning:
"I praise myself and praise myself.
You have to bear everything I bear,
Because every atom that belongs to me belongs to you. "
At the end, Whitman wrote again:
"If you can't find me at the moment, please keep your courage.
If you can't see it in one place, look for it in another.
I will always wait for you somewhere. "
There are many such passages in the poem:
"I can't, and no one else can go which way for you.
You must go by yourself. "
The whole poem begins with "I" and ends with "you", and "I" and "you" appear alternately in the poem. Although "I" assumed the main narrative role of the poem, "You" always sang this song that belongs to me. On the one hand, this writing reflects Whitman's understanding of the importance of readers' roles, and he likes to talk to readers to make them feel the existence of poetry; On the one hand, it represents the unity of "I" and "you", the same person, the same idea and a harmonious relationship. This writing is the continuation of "wholeness" inherited by Whitman in his poems.
At the beginning of Leaves of Grass, Whitman wrote:
"I'm singing about a person, a single individual,
But with the word democracy, the pronunciation of this word is the same. "
It can be seen that Whitman praises the whole, and "self" and "whole" are closely related, more like the same word, reflecting their unity and fate. In his poems, Whitman also describes all kinds of people in America:
"The soft contralto in the piano room is singing,
The carpenter was working on his board, and the iron tongue of the plane screamed in despair.
Married and unmarried boys rode home for Thanksgiving dinner.
The helmsman grabbed the main tiller and pushed it down with a strong arm. "
There are many such descriptions, including people of various occupations and images in the United States. Whitman praised them and everyone. As he wrote at the end of this section:
"All this has entered my heart, and I have entered their hearts.
As it is, so am I,
I woven all this into my own song. "
My relationship with everyone is close and consistent. I praise them and myself.
Although the above-mentioned "I" and "you" have the same function, the theme narrator of the poem is still "I", and the image of "I" appears many times in the whole text. Therefore, we can analyze the connotation of "self".
Emerson pointed out in a speech published in Corona magazine in 1843+ 10: "Immanuel Kant of Konigsberg used the word' transcendental' for the first time when answering Locke's skeptical philosophy of life." Kant believes that the knowledge base of universality and inevitability comes from human nature. Kant's "nature" is a core concept in his transcendental philosophy. He pointed out that this innate thing does not come from feeling or past experience, but is a universality and inevitability, which existed inherently before experience. This is Kant's "transcendental" thought. Transcendentalism is a literary school based on transcendentalism. Transcendentalists, led by Emerson, put forward their own ideas on the basis of Kant's aesthetics, advocating "taking emotion as the standard, holding high the wings of imagination, advocating creative genius and pursuing aesthetic value". They believe in miracles and inspiration, advocate the liberation of individuality, and claim that every real thing exists independently, thus calling for the independence of American literature and strongly demanding that the United States should have its own writers and poets. Below I will analyze Whitman's "self" connotation from two angles.
Whitman emphasizes the subjectivity of human cognition, intuition and inspiration. Transcendentalism advocates the belief of intuitive knowledge, pays attention to people's own value and advocates the unity of nature and spirit. At the beginning of the poem, Whitman wrote:
"I wandered around and invited my soul to join me.
? I bent down and leisurely observed a summer blade of grass. "
I myself am appreciating the blades of grass in nature and seeking isomorphism with them. When talking about what an ideal poet is, Whitman once said: "An ideal poet must be upright first, and then he can communicate with nature." He believes that man and nature should be harmonious and unified. So the "self" here seeks isomorphism with the grass. Grass is insignificant, but it has tenacious vitality; Although the grass is ordinary, it shows its true self and never gives in to any external pressure. Summer Grass is the perfect embodiment of this tenacious vitality. The dense green of summer grass reflects the development of the poet's infinite vitality, which is the characteristic of the poet Whitman's spirit. This is the high unity of Whitman's spirit and nature, and it is also one of the connotations of his "self".
The second point lies in the nationality of "self". Although Whitman wrote in verse 24:
"walt whitman, son of the universe, Manhattan,
Crazy, obese, lustful, able to eat and drink, good at reproduction,
Not sentimental, not superior to men and women, or far away from him.
Dear friends, you are neither humble nor presumptuous. "
However, the poet pointed out in the article Looking Back that "any country, nation and environment need their own poets and poems that are different from others, unlike the land, nation and environment in the United States, which are in urgent need today and in the future", "I have carefully decided that this same person should be myself-not others". What Whitman tried to do was to redefine American poetry and American poets. Although there are poets who describe themselves in the poem, the poet hopes that everyone can understand the national poets urgently needed in the United States at that time. He represents the American personality, not just the "self" in the poem.
The idea of equality and democracy is also reflected in this poem:
"I guess this is a unified hieroglyph,
? This means that it is the same to breed in a wide or narrow area.
? Grew up black or white,
? I give the same gifts to guests from Kenner, Tucker and Americans, congressmen and police.
I treat them equally. "
The grass grows the same everywhere, which means the idea of equality. The author eulogizes all Americans with the same brush strokes. The author is very eager for freedom and democracy and calls on everyone to realize this kind of life.
References:
Qin Wang. Sing my own song again-A brief analysis of Whitman's My Song [J]. Journal of Wuxi Vocational and Technical College, 2009,8 (02): 88-90.
[2] Wang Guiming, Liu. Transcendentalism in my song [J]. Journal of beijing institute of technology (Social Science Edition), 2005(04):67-7 1.