Previous Next

“Song of Myself” is a sprawling poem that, though epic in scope, doesn’t have a clearly discernible arc or narrative structure. Instead, the poem functions as something of a container for the vast “kosmos” (line 497) of the speaker’s self. “Song of Myself” therefore has a nonlinear and exploratory structure, with each numbered section highlighting different themes and featuring distinct formal techniques. At times the speaker does follow a single idea or thought across several sections, as when, in sections 35–37, he recounts a sea battle from the American Revolutionary War. For the most part, though, the numbered sections contain distinct vignettes. Yet despite how disparate the individual parts of the poem may appear, they are all united through the speaker’s mind. This alone gives the poem a form, as the speaker insinuates in lines 1316–17:

     Do you see O my brothers and sisters?
     It is not chaos or death—it is form, union, plan—it is eternal life—it is Happiness.

However much the poem has seemed like a manifestation of “chaos,” the speaker insists that there is “form, union, plan.” Furthermore, if what gives the poem structure is something akin to “eternal life,” it may be because “Song of Myself” consists of 52 sections. As the number of weeks in a year, the number 52 symbolizes the infinitude implied by the ongoing cycles of time.

Previous section Tone Next section Meter

Take a Study Break