Song of Myself

"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d" by Walt Whitman (1865)

While “Song of Myself” is propelled forward by a powerful sense of optimism and faith in the American experiment, Whitman was not naïve about the sincere threats to democracy in his day. “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is Whitman’s elegy for President Lincoln, who was assassinated on April 14, 1865, just days after the Civil War ended. Like John Milton’s Lycidas and Percy Shelley’s Adonais, “When Lilacs” is a pastoral elegy. It uses images in nature (like lilacs, the planet Venus, and a thrush) to mourn and, finally, to accept death. Whitman also mourned Lincoln in another of his most famous poems, “O Captain! My Captain!”.

"I, Too" by Langston Hughes (1925)

Langton Hughes was an important poet of the Harlem Renaissance, a period of artistic and intellectual revival for the African American community in the 1920s and 30s. A direct response to Whitman’s democratic dinner invitation in Section 19 of “Song of Myself,” “I, Too” reminds Whitman (and the rest of white society) that though slavery had technically ended, the promised feast of equality has not yet come to pass. “I am the darker brother,” he writes. “They send me to eat in the kitchen / When company comes.” Hughes both embraces Whitman’s dedication to American democracy and challenges it: While he is hopeful for the future, there is still much work to be done. Walt Whitman positioned himself as the preeminent voice and spirit of the United States; “I, too, am America,” Hughes insists.

"A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsberg (1956)

One of the premier poets of the Beat Generation, Allen Ginsberg is often described by literary critics as a spiritual successor to Walt Whitman. His prose certainly invites the comparison. Ginsberg used many of Whitman’s favorite poetic devices—like free verse, catalogues, and vignettes—and covered controversial topics too (e.g. sex, city life, queerness). In this poem, Ginsberg imagines meeting Whitman in a modern-day supermarket, contrasting Whitman’s optimistic vision of America with Ginsberg’s more cynical, postwar malaise. Whitman is also a powerful presence in Ginsberg’s most famous poem, “Howl.”