Although Whitman is understood to be the father of American poetry I can't say that he was my absolute favorite to read! As I was reading I often thought to myself, why is this so sexual?! Why is he relating anything he can to sex?! However, I can say that I appreciate how he refused to make a divide between body/spirit, refusing to saying some experiences as a human are more valuable than others. But before I throw him out all together, there were some things that I appreciated about his poetry. I liked part 2, where he is basically calling people out for thinking they have everything figured out.
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)...
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self. (lines 32-34, 36-37)
Here he is questioning people who think they have all the answers, and suggesting that they go out and experience nature--how vast and wide and unknowable it is: "there are millions of suns left." He says not to just listen to what others say, but experience life and come to have opinions for yourself.
However, he also recognizes that this will be a difficult process, one that he is still on. I liked the last stanza of "Song of Myself":
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you. (lines 1343-1345)
Maybe I did enjoy reading Whitman after all.
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