Ulterior Motifs

        In "Song of Myself," I find perception to be one of the most interesting motifs. Of course, this is not a literal motif, but I like the way that it is present throughout the poem, and the poem relies on it (In a symbiotic relationship.) The theme itself is loaded with tangential meaning and Whitman effectively frames his poem through multiple perceptions. Certain verses exhibit a specific type of character who has a specific outlook; all views work together.The four that I found most interesting were through the perception of a child, an outsider, the assumed narrator and the relationship between author and reader.

“A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;

How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more

than he.”

            (I know the grass is hackneyed, but I mean for the child to be of focus, not the grass.)
           A child asks daddy Walt a question that reeks of simplicity, but upon consideration, the question becomes extremely complicated. We can break down our language system in a way that creates more meaning than just the superficial meaning. A child may be asking something as simple as “what is the grass” to an adult, who will begin to think theoretically- “well what IS the grass?” Whitman knows just as much as the child, he only has more experience than the child. He uses this perception as a process- a child is learning constantly- discovering the things that we (as adults) find obvious. This process is breaking through the walls of naivety/ignorance in order to step into the depressing reality of “knowing.” Learning is a process and so is Song of Myself  (the poem will educate you – provide you with tools) The child is the child inside of us- the spirit that reminds us to loaf around with our clothes off and forget (for a moment) our reality (to live in newness).

“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 no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look

through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,

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.”

As a reader, we are bringing our own perception to the poem; we become part of the meaning of the poem. Our life experiences and knowledge becomes the lens for which we interpret the poem. How we understand the poem is just as important as the words on the page. The perception of the reader and author make the poem more than a piece of paper; it becomes a breathing organism. We breathe into the mouth of Walt, like CPR (and it’s hella sexy.) As opposed to the idea that the author is privileged and on a pedestal, Whitman is letting the reader blend with the author; authority is not an issue. Whitman perverts the normal relationship between reader and author – a power relationship that is seen in most writing. Rather than make proclamations, he wants to know the reader’s perspective; he wants the reader to learn from his poem. He doesn’t want the reader to take what Walt says as the sole truth, but use what one has learned to develop one’s own truth. The poem changes with every reader- with all of their experiences influencing their perspective- a perspective of multitudes.

“Dancing and laughing along the beach came the twenty-ninth

bather”

            The woman watching the bathers is an outsider. For one, she is the only woman around a group of men and secondly she is stuck inside watching the men enjoy themselves from a distance. Ironically the outsider is inside the house while the men are “outside” it, yet are “in.” She is watching them through a filter, literally. The windowpane is between her and the outside world, presenting her with a false clarity- allowing her to fall into her daydream. Although the window is clear, it is a thick and impenetrable boundary between her and the bathers. The bathers all look as if they are having a great time, but they are still lonely: “Twenty-eight years of womanly life and all so lonesome.” The woman may understand that they are lonely, but at the moment, they are enjoying the flesh of another - a temporary medication for their loneliness. The woman is a voyeur to their fleshy adventures and imagines herself joining them as the 29^th bather. The voyeur (outsider) represents the voyeuristic reader. We read into pieces of writing without the author knowing (specifically they don’t know who is reading/the writer is probably dead), gazing upon something that is not ours.

“Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself,

(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

            As readers, we must never assume that the narrator is the author. The narrator asks “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” The poem is full of contradictions and is in no way a representation of one truth. A human being is not in complete agreement with all the currents inside him/her; we are full of contradictions and Whitman accepts that – more than accepts it, he embraces it. Contradictions are a part of the human condition, just as “Song of Myself” exhibits. Whitman is everyman and everywoman. As Whitman suggests, we all contain multitudes. So what is the perception of Whitman? I don’t think we need to know – it would defeat the purpose. His poem is not gearing up as a means to an end, the process – the life of the poem is what is important. Meaning is arbitrary; it is the experience that matters. The perception of the narrator is one of contradictions, which would usually result in readers deeming him as an “unreliable narrator.” I don’t see Whitman as an unreliable narrator; I see him as representing the unreliability and complexities in humanity, making him anything but unreliable (actually very reliable in a sense).

By using perception as a motif, Whitman develops different ways to look at the poem. There are many different lenses in this poem, all representing certain themes. A child represents a perception of naivety laced with insight. The outsider – the voyeur – mimics the position of the reader. As readers, we can virtually be a part of the written events, but we are not actually participating, just as a voyeur. The relationship between the author and the reader provides a perception that defies the “norm.” Perception is not limited to what Whitman writes for it also relies on the perception of the reader, adding a layer of meaning that is unique to the individual. The perception of the author represents the persona an author wears which does not make it the author’s reality. By doing this, Whitman is displaying humanity in a broad sense. “Song of Myself” is a vivarium of different perceptions and essentially a depiction of life.