I feel pretty relaxed reading Walt Whitman’s poems, a feeling which never before did I feel when reading poems. I have admitted it and here I admit it again that poems always scare me because they are difficult to read, to understand. They seem too academically high and out of rich. In short, they are selective of readers, of which I am not one. Whitman’s poems show me another world. His poems are very absorbing and accepting of the mass.

First, the expressions are casual where sentences are said as we normally speak. There are usually not this “weird” switching between words to create rhymes so it is pretty easy to follow his thought. Personally, I do not need rhymes to read poems. They bother me a little as it rhymes too well, it slips through my head. I bet many people find it easy reading Whitman. Isn’t it great feeling that you are included in such a world usually preserved for those of high-leveled education?

Second, song of myself is a revolution about the focus and understanding of self, a revolution set forth by an individual. Song of Myself – the title sounds immodest and bragging. Certainly, Whitman matched the content with its title. Everything said in the poem is his view, his thoughts, his way of looking at the world, his way of leading his life, nothing else but him, himself, and his own. What takes the arrogance of the seemingly self-centeredness in this poem is that the view and thought are about others, care about others, and love for others, especially those ignored, belittled, and boycotted from “civil” society. For me, it is more of a voice of acceptance to those who need love the most. It means unconditional generosity rather than seemingly selfishness.

I love unconventional poetic styles.