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English 232 Mr. Powell June 2, 2003 First Written Assignment Walt Whitman was a poet who existed in a very conservative period of time. In his poems we can see the transition from Romanticism to Realism. His views, thoughts, and beliefs were so ahead of his time that he’s almost considered revolutionary for writing such poem as, “Song of Myself”. In this particular poem we can see Whitman talk about social attitudes and convictions involving sex, religion, and slavery/racism. He touched subjects that people from his time period wouldn’t dare touch, and more importantly, he took these subjects and broke all rules and taboos imposed by society. The 1800 hundreds’ was a period in which the word sex was not openly said or talked about, but Whitman was the exception. We can see that, in paragraph three line forty six as he says, “Out of the dimness opposite equals advance, always substance and increase, always sex…” This particular line can be considered a homosexual reference, but it also implies that he accepts all forms of love. In paragraph five line ninety five, Whitman argues that sex is expressing love, and that we are all bound together by love regardless of sexual preference because “ all the men ever born are [his brothers], and the women [his] sisters and lovers”.
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