Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Secular or Eclectic : Transcendentalist 19th Century	About Walt Whitman Timeline (1819 - 1892)
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Original Language English	[1] I celebrate myself, and sing myself, (from Song of Myself)
Commentary by Ivan M. Granger Themes   Birth, Rebirth   Death   Womb       Recommended Books Dead Poets Society (DVD), by Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman Song of Myself, by Walt Whitman	I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loaf and invite my soul, I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death. Creeds and schools in abeyance, Retiring back awhile sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard, Nature without check with original energy.     -- from Song of Myself, by Walt Whitman Amazon.com
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

This is the opening chapter to Walt Whitman's masterpiece, Song of Myself. He accepts all of life, the sensual and the sublime, the hellish and the heavenly as exhuberant expressions of the Divine. And he recognizes the Divine is not separate from himself.

This opening chapter proclaims his famous line, "I loaf and invite my soul." This perfectly reflects Whitman's sensibilities: on the one hand, it suggests a langourous sensuality while, on the other hand, his "loafing" can be understood as spiritual rest, the stillness that genuinely invites the sacred experience. He continuously writes on the two levels, the tactile and the transcendent.

"Hoping to cease not till death."

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
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