Shock Value in Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself'

Henri Bergson once said, "There is no greater joy than that of feeling oneself a creator. The triumph of life is expressed by creation." Creating a masterpiece out of your life and making it your own is something that one must strive for their entire life. It comes easier to some than others, but what you are, and the worthiness of your character is reason to celebrate. Walt Whitman demonstrates this to us in the beautiful words of his 1855 poem, Song of Myself. This poem is one of Whitman’s most popular, from his book Leaves of Grass. At this time, Whitman made a name for himself with his new, emerging writing style. This is very evident in the relationship we see between his identity and his unconventional use of poetic conventions. Not only did Whitman break our conceptions of meter by using free verse with this poem, but the structure of the poem is different than any other. He organized the poem into fifty-two distinct sections. So, indeed these sections could be thou...