Prose

Interpretation of Song Of Myself 

Section One:
 
In the first stanza, poet declares his oneness with someone or something. He points out that he is bound to a certain someone or something to atomic level. Whatever he possesses is also equally shared and possessed by that "someone/something."

 In the second stanza it is clarified who Waltman is talking to. He was talking to a blade of a summer grass. But question arises: what is this grass? What is the relation of the poet to this simple grass? How is he bound to atomic level to this Grass? What makes him claim so? Here the grass is but an image of all pervading nature, and the nature is but the Creation of One God. 

Now in the third stanza, the poet explains how he belongs to the land; how he is a Son of Man of Man of the same land, and how this land i.e., the nature is fed and melted into the atoms of blood of his ancestors and became one with them; the nature became a part of their bone, flesh, blood and skin and above all their souls. Thus the poet is bound to this nature at an atomic level. And thus he is declaring his oneness with God Himself, in Islam what we call the Fanaah state. John Donne says the same thing in his poem The Ecstacy,
"If any, so by love refined,
    That he soul's language understood,
And by good love were grown all mind,
    Within convenient distance stood,
...
But as all several souls contain
    Mixture of things they know not what,
Love these mix'd souls doth mix again,
    And makes both one, each this, and that."
                        But if we look at it another way, here poet establishes the fact that he belongs to this land, this country as any other men of the land. He is a true patriot, and at the age of thirty seven, as a healthy poet he wants to begin his song that will transcend his time and all barriers. But he is but a part of nature. Therefore, his song will be sung till the end of time. As Shakespeare says in his sonnet XVIII,
                        "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
                          So long lives this and this gives life to thee. "
Thus poet Walt Whitman, becomes a visionary and a prophet just by the first three stanzas of his poem.

He says that there was a time when just by blindly following what our system or belief taught us, not properly looking into it ourselves or not understanding it at all, was the norm of a land; the system doesn't allow us to look beyond the boundary of faith or else it will be a blasphemy. But, poet believes in nature, as it is free and not bound by the hypocrisy that the words of faith hides within. The poet wants to speak freely and wants all to be fearless and truthful against all odds as nature.

 
Section Two:
 
In this section "House", "Room", "Shelves" and "perfume" are symbols. If we refer "house" as the world, then "room" becomes countries, "shelves" become the societies, classes, creeds, races, etc., and "perfumes" become the people who consist them.
Now the symbolism goes on. The poet is unstoppable. He says that he likes and respects the "perfumes" and the "fragrance" or the "ideals" they represent. The "distillation" is the process of imposing or embedding an "ideology" in the people of the society and "intoxicating" or controlling them. The poet says although he likes everything of the society he belongs to, he refuses to be a puppet of the conventional system of the society or the world. He rebels against it.
                         
In the second stanza, the atmosphere represents the "Nature". He says that the nature is not like the people and their ideologies which are confusing, and treacherous and full of hypocrisy; and the nature is not controlled by the people, and not obviously by their ideologies. The poet likes the nature very much. The poet again, for the second time, declares the presence of nature in his existence. Everything that belongs to the nature, as very well, belongs to the poet. The vivid imagery poet uses here, screams of that fact.

In the third stanza, the poet directs us to a question if we have understood the meaning of his poem, or all the poems. The poems are of selves and they are eternally endless. As the count of selves is limitless, so is the count of the poems and their meanings. We may boast about how perfectly fine we can read a poem, but poet gives us a shocking revelation- we can never find an ending to the meanings of poems, just as our sun is not the only one, rather it is merely one of many millions of suns in this universe.

Then the poet suggests us something of profound meaning, and that is not be bound by the meanings of poems, already found by the rest of the world.

From here we understand that we read critique of others to find something unique of our own.
  
Section Three:

The poet continues his journey toward mysticism. He says that he hears people always talk about the "beginning" and the "end" of all things. Here is a fine allusion to biblical events. The poet says that people are inclined to the discussion of past and the future; they love to indulge in useless talk of something which is not within their reach; and obviously, the poet never gets himself involved in that worthless pastimes.

The poet is interested in what is at hand. He is interested in working on "now" which is within his reach. He says that "now" decides what will be in the "end". He says that there is no "inception" or "beginning" better than what we begin "now"; he says that the present decides my age- young or old; "now" is the time "perfect" to do something; the actions we take "now" will put me in "hell" or, "heaven". The poet is a man of action. He will do something in the present moment than doing nothing and regretting about it later. He refuses to say something like-"Oh! There was this time! I could have done good and gone to heaven later."

With the next lines, the poet points out the eternal malady of human nature. He says that humans are always in need. Humans have insatiable "urge" of the world.

Then he narrates the various dimensions of human "urge".  Here he takes the privilege of a historian. He, in a nutshell describes, how humanity come to where it is now. He says when humanity came out of "dimness" or, the "dark age", the "opposite" became "equals" or, in other words "men" and "women" achieved equality, and then they both worked together toward the apex of civilization. But to his surprise, the poet finds that in the end humans are nothing but materialistic(substance), greedy(increase of substance) and sex indulgent beasts. Men and women overcame the dark age alright, but they couldn't overcome the darkness inside of them. The poet call humans "knit of identity" or, a mere perishable fabric of identity; they always look for differences and humans are nothing but a "breed" or, special variety of domesticated animal. Here, as a Muslim I start to wonder, if he had read the holy Quran, because Allah refers humans as four legged animals or even worse than them in His Noble Revelation.

He says that there is no point in stretching the narration any farther, because, be it wise or ignorant, everyone feels the same. He is "sure" that this fact is a mystery that he has to stand with, well embraced and affectionately. But neither he nor the mystery is willing to bow to the other, hence they stand "upright" and "haughtily".
The poet have clear conscience about his soul and he knows it is sweet and pure; and that is the reason he finds the rest that is not his "soul" the same. Whosoever lacks this clarity of soul, the rest of the world will not be "clear" and "sweet" to him.

The poet suggests us that there is another world which is "unseen", and the proof of its existence is the "seen". Here we find a biblical reference of Prophets whom humans can "see" and they bring to us the words of GOD and the world after death which are now "unseen". Now, this is so magnificently said by the poet. We see the prophets or the books that give us the proof of the "unseen" and when we die the "unseen" becomes "seen" and this "seen" proofs that the "seen" of the material world was really true.

It is the age old nature of the humans to differentiate between good and bad; they love to boast how more perfect they are than the rest. The poet finds it better to do something from his daily routine like bathing and then contemplate his "self".

He speaks of equality. Here again he subtly refer to a religion which stands for equality, which teaches not hate but to welcome each and every single thing of this world; and this is possible when everyone will have a clean, pure and cordial heart. The poet says that this religion of "welcoming" and equality for everything is his religion.
In the last stanza of the section, the poet teaches us how to be satisfied. Because, we understand that as he is satisfied with his life he is able to have clear and pure heart that welcomes everything. He says that a good bed-fellow will give a man the satisfaction he needs. Here he uses "white towel" as a symbol of peace and it is in plenty in his house.

The poet finishes the section with a rhetorical question. He asks his readers if he should stop his eyes from seeing what they see now and turn them towards the material of the world and become busy with counting their values. The answer is that he will never stop seeing the world the way he sees now.

Section Four:

In this section the poet tries to explain to us the difference of "self" and his surroundings. He says that all around him are people who are either hallucinating psychotics or the inquisitors who love to ask so many questions. Then he talks about the effect of various incidents that happened or is happening now or will happen in the future- personal, familial, social, local, national, or even international, and keep him busy dawn to dusk so much that it may even be difficult to recognize the "self" from all jungle of information and preoccupation. People are so busy with their surroundings and the rest of the world that they often lose their "self". The poet is trying to remind us that there is something very personal and unique within everyone and that is the soul or the "self" and it can't be defined by anything of this world.

Among all the huddle and muddle of everything, the "self" exists. It is untouchable or incomprehensive; it sits in the middle of all, being amused as the one who has seen it all, heard it all - impartially. This self is like the million year old sage. So, it wonders as it watches while the rest of world is terrifyingly perturbed.

The poet, in his past life, was in confused state to find meaning of things so even worked with linguists and his rivals in life or work, together. Now he doesn't rush things; he is much more calm and composed and observes everything.
  
Section Five:

The poet enlighten us with mysticism within ourselves. The "soul" is the "unseen" and the body is the "unseen" here. He says that both are important and neither soul nor its container should be underestimated.

The poet, here, again mentions about "grass". He asks his body to be one with the nature as did his soul. To understand the nature and God, one must submit one's soul and body to them. Then one will understand both the nature and its Creator God. To find the ultimate nirvana one's body and soul must be in complete harmony.

The poet says how sensual love made him aware of the peace and knowledge of the world. As God speaks the language of Love, and the as the poet now understands the same, he promises what God wants to do, just like a prophet. Therefore, the poet becomes like the universal brother and lover to all of the humankind. He says that as the keelson of a ship hold the whole of the framework of the ship, love too is the keelson of all of the creation of God. The whole universe is still functioning properly because God loves all of His creations, although countless people are unaware of it. The poet uses strong symbolism "leaves stiff", "drooping", "brown ants", "mossy scabs" to mean all small unnoticed familiarities of the nature. Here poet invites humans to look deeper into their souls so that can find the smallest of all things that go unnoticed during one's life time, in order to discover how detailed God's love is for His creation. Even the smallest things like leaves, or ants or mossy scabs don't escape His eyes.

Section Six:

Here, the poet, once again brings the mythical object "grass". To him the simple, lush green grass is not as simple as it seems. That is why he can't answer the child's question properly. This grass holds very profound meaning to the  poet and he is about unveil what was going though his mind when the child asked him about it.

The poet says that perhaps the grass is the "flag" of his "disposition". Flag works as sign or signaling device and disposition as the usual habit or mood or attitude of a person. Therefore, the poet says that grass is the interpretation of his mind and mood.

In many love stories, we see that the person who wants to be remembered somehow manages to give a handkerchief with the name of the owner inscribed in the corner to someone whose love s/he wants. In this stanza, the poet tries to say that grass is the handkerchief of God and He purposefully made earth full of grass so that we humans always remember Him through grass.

In this line, the poet feels that grass is as important as the vegetation itself. We may spend hours writing poems or stories about the beauty of trees, leaves, the fruits or the whole jungle, like Joseph Conrad did in his novel "Heart of Darkness". Joseph Conrad used vivid imagery to describe the nature of humans through the means of Jungle and vegetation only. Robert Frost wrote poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy evening"; Robert Frost here wrote and symbolized wood. But Walt Whitman wants to talk about the little grasses that we hardly notice while we trample all over them to go watch and glorify the forest, or vegetation that gave birth to them. To Walt Whitman everything is equally important. While others love to be one with the mainstream, Walt Whitman gives importance to finer details. He says that we can't just overlook grasses because the vegetation we so long to glorify, gave birth to them.

The poet again guesses that Grass is a common pictorial language of God. The poet tries to say how God sees everyone equally; how much impartial our God is. Because, grass grows all over the place and all the same. God is for all and everyone. God never discriminates and gives preference to one race over the others. That is why God's love is for every American- Red, Black or White. That is why the poet also loves all Americans and they all love him back the same.

As the poet remembers every uncommon things of his motherland, he never fails to remember those unattended graves of those child who died for the motherland at very young age. While all the marked and recognized graves are attended and taken care of properly, Walt Whitman remembers the unknown and attended graves. There are clues in his diction; "uncut hair of graves". Grasses are uncut only if the graves are not attended properly, which means that the graves are not remembered or the people inside them are not remembered or unknown to the rest of the people of the land. The poet wants to remember all those grasses with tenderness and love. He loves those grasses because he is sure that if he had known all those men- young or old. He is sure that the graves are of very young people because, the color of the grasses is too dark to be from the white head of old mothers or from the colorless beard of old men. He says that the grasses of the graves have become the mother's laps for those children who died so young. The poet wish to unveil the truth about those unknown martyrs and what words were unspoken of by them.
Now the poet travel to the netherworld. He firmly believes that those unknown and unsung dead are well and happy in a place unseen by the people of this world. They are far from being dead in that world. The "seen" sprouts of grasses prove that those men, women and children are well alive in that "unseen" world. The poet says that there is no actual "death" for human beings. The "death" is not an arrest, but simply a passage that leads the people to the "afterlife". He strongly rebels against the common notion that "death is the end of everything" and believes that after death it is even better and luckier because, people get to meet their maker-God.
 
(Only the first Six sections, need your honest comments on this.)