Whitman and Women: "Song of Myself"

I am the poet of the charwo homokind the same as the man, Whitman exclaims, in Song of Myself (419). The exultant, rolling lines of Whitmans poetry contain abundant references to some(prenominal) the sacredness of women and the limitlessness of their power. At the heart of his representation of women lay his thirst to build a new American identity anchored on democratic and egalitarian principles. Whitman depicts women, particularly in their maternal role, as the cornerst mavens to the realization of his utopian social vision for America, but what is much unmistakable than this powerful glorification of the maternal figure is his rotatory portrayal of women as highly individualized, self-contained figures. In Whitmans cleaning lady the reader sees a soul affirming, sexual being, who is not one jot less than man (A Woman Waits For Me,16).

Leaves of Grass, Whitmans feeling collection of poems, portrays women as the gateways to life, and in turn, the gateways to the promise of a libertarian dream. In Unfolded out of the Folds Whitman exalts the sacredness of woman as one who brings forth worldly concern: Unfolded only out of the superbest woman of the earth is to come the superbest man of the earth (2).



He pronounces that mans greatness is dependent on woman:

A man is a great thing upon the earth and by means of eternity, but

every jot of the greatness of man is unfolded out of woman;

First the man is shaped in the woman, he can then be shaped in

himself. [11-12]

Whitman advanced the divinity of motherhood, but to him it was much to a greater extent; motherhood was a sacred solution to the agitation and convulsion of the America of his time. His view of woman as the architect of a new free and equal America is most evident in Song of the Broad Axe.

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