Walt Whitman's "Self"

Walt Whitman was a very unique poet, who wrote of many things that were controversial at the time. He was not afraid to speak of things like sexuality, and many people considered his conceited. He can be taken a number of ways, because he speaks of the world and how everything is one. He tries to say that everyone is everyone else and is also God at the same time, so many people are not sure how to perceive him. He was a complicated man, with many emotions, and it helped him a lot in his poetry writing.
Whitman emphasized Self very much in his poetry, and he does it in many ways. He tries hard to show that everyone is the same as everyone else. This could be taken to say that everyone should have the same rights, because they are all the same people, but at the same time, they are all God as well. So, it could also be taken that all people should have all of the same rights as God, because they are all the same and they are also all God. This helps to show how complicated his works were and how far ahead of his time he really was.
Whitman uses Song to factor into Self in a poem called “One’s-Self I Sing”. In this poem he talks about how bodies do not matter and really do not count for anything. He says he is cheering for males and females alike, and that meant a lot from him, because he often was on the fringe when discussing sexuality. He often put women down quite a bit, and it is surprising that he would cheer for women as much as he would cheer for men. He claims that bodies do not matter, because he is talking about souls and how souls are all the same because everyone is the same person. He says that brains also are not the only things that are needed, because, while they are a part of the body that is vitally important, they do not complete the body, and that is what he wants. He wants the whole thing to come packaged together nicely in a set, because he claims that makes things much better and easier. He claims that songs can help oneself in that they can make one much more cheerful and can help give one much passion, which he explains as very important in the life of a person. He realizes that people need to be happy to really live, and he says that songs will definitely help them do that. He also wants people to be modern and up to date, because he thinks that will help the self become much better and much more complete. He realizes that there are many components to being a good soul, and he really thinks that songs will help humans achieve that amazing soul.
Walt Whitman was a very influential writer that has been compared to Shakespeare. He wanted people to think of the Self as the most important part of the being, and people were split about whether they should listen to him or not. There were not many people that were on the fence about him, because most people were either whole-heartedly for him, or they were whole-heartedly against him. Many people will argue for days about whether or not his writings were egotistical, and that all depends on where people draw the line. He may not have thought that he was crossing the line while other people did, and that makes his works very controversial. He was a good author and he had new ways to convey his thoughts and meanings, but new things are not always taken well in the beginning and his works were not an exception.