I: The Poet Of Everybody

Taking into account the constant repetitiveness of the pronoun “I” throughout the poems, we could surmise that narration is an important focus. The verses are conveyed in first person, making the narrator quite superior due to the emphasis of his point of view. Still, the narrator tries to avoid superiority in relevance of the reader by referring to him as an equal: “And I shall assume you shall assume; / For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you” (2-3). This action is as well relevant with the content of the poem, sensing that both the narrator and the reader are equally affected by the mentioned perfume, or that the point of view of the narrator is the point of view of the reader. In comparison to this we can take Dante’s Inferno opening line, “When I had journeyed half of our life’s way” (Inferno I), which shows contrast between the “I” and the “our” posed in the verse. With this, the narrator places everything under his path. Because “our” can be everybody, just as the “you” employed in Leaves Of Grass.

With the prominence of the “I” in the poem, or the “self” of the poem’s speaker, Whitman seems to be putting himself in the center, but instead he is evoking an expansive being that expands the boundaries of a person. Verses throughout the poems make it apparent that Whitman, or the narrator, does not see himself of one individual, but rather a voice speaking for all: “I pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-wash’d babe, and am not contain’d / between my hat and boots” (125-126). Through these lines, the narrator is portrayed as being an extraordinary identity, making us believe him as an elevated hero. Yet, the verses also invoke a universal being rather than an individual one. Describing the course of birth and death, the narrator is identified as a person, but when mentioning “am not contain’d between my hat and boots”, the narrator is seen as the representation of everybody. This technique of narration embraces the message that Whitman wants to transmit to us in the end: the narrator and the poet are everybody, therefore, the poem, is what we create: America.