Song of Myself

In Section 24, Whitman declares his intent to be the voice of many (“Through me many long dumb voices, / Voices of the interminable generations”). He positions himself as a spokesperson of not only the American people, but all of humanity, past, present, and future. Reflecting the weight Whitman places on physicality and the human body, organs of speaking and breathing—the mechanisms which produces sound—find special significance in “Song of Myself.”

Early in the poem, Whitman links his poetic voice with the American-ness of his tongue (“My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air,” Section 1). There, the poet’s physical tongue is identified as an essential tool of his poetry, but Whitman uses the word in other senses too. For example, in Section 21 he declares his intent to translate all of human experience “into a new tongue,” this time using “tongue” as a synonym for “language.”

But to produce sound, air is needed too. Whitman also references the lungs and breathing as powerhouses of poetic composition. He marvels at “the smoke” of his own breath, his “respiration and inspiration,” the beating of his heart, “the passing of blood and air through [his] lungs” (Section 2).