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A review by ruxandra_grr
Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
3.0
Started reading this a little bit before my 37th birthday (because someone had read a bit of this in a Zoom call and I heard that Whitman mentions he is 37), finished it almost 3 months later while listening to it being read. There was a lot I loved about this, the way it speaks about interconnectedness, sensuality, being in your body, not being measured because a person is a limitless universe spawning themself every second, growing more, loved the self-sovereignty aspects, the philosophical of: we change each other through love and knowing each other and all that.
At the same time, I cannot take this out of context. It does reify some sort of American entrepreneurship, conquering, 'specialness'. And also, he does say he is every man and woman and um slave, but at the same time, he was not because he was afforded the privilege of being a white man in that world and so, while I appreciate the ideal, it still felt unsatisfactory to not have that acknowledged.
Some part of this poem did soar for me and made me feel things so that was nice.
At the same time, I cannot take this out of context. It does reify some sort of American entrepreneurship, conquering, 'specialness'. And also, he does say he is every man and woman and um slave, but at the same time, he was not because he was afforded the privilege of being a white man in that world and so, while I appreciate the ideal, it still felt unsatisfactory to not have that acknowledged.
Some part of this poem did soar for me and made me feel things so that was nice.