Song of Myself: Verses1-21

    Walt Whitman created a poem about his perception of the world around him and wrote it in such a way that it described numerous lives. The way this was done through the descriptions of the world around the individual. This poem claims to focus on the creator (Walt Whitman) however it was written in such a way that readers can identify with it as well. Throughout the poem Whitman describes the way that the world around him is perceived "The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless," (Whitman, verse 17).
      The way Whitman describes the world around himself is easy for the audience to relate and associate with. It is through this process that Whitman does make a "Song of Myself." The trick to this; however, is that Whitman makes it a song of 'many selves' by making it so easy to identify with on a personal level.
    Whitman also adds in an additional conundrum towards the beginning of the poem, "I loafe and invite
 my soul," (Whiman, verse 4).  This poses to the audience a challenging concept of themselves of feeling
that there is no direction in life. If that resonates with the reader it makes the poem more personal to the individual as the audience can sink the words of Whitman in with a kindred perspective of seeing the world around the reader as Whitman sees it.
      The purpose of Whitman composing this poem was to express how Walt Whitman saw and perceived the world about him. The product of this purpose was a song that would be able to resonate with the feelings of a large audience and give a viewpoint of the surroundings of the audience that would encompass them on a broad view and bring it into a narrow focused lens for those that delved deep enough into the poem.