Whitman's Democracy
"I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of democracy,
By God! I will Accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart
of on the same terms."
This is Whitman's expression of the idea of democracy taken from "Song
of Myself." In this all encompassing interpretation Whitman says that the
freedom offered by democracy is for all not a chosen few. It included all people,
not renouncing those of other races, creeds, or social standings. Examples of
this acceptance are scattered through many of the poems Whitman wrote.
In his poem "To a Common Prostitute" Whitman wrote: "Not till The sun
excludes you do I exclude you." He has accepted the women as a prostitute, but
this also ...
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In these poems Whitman has described those held in the lowest esteem.
He has also described the common man, the mothers, and the soldiers. He speaks
for all these people, liberating them. He has taken them out from the ranks
that society had put them in, and brought them together, glorifying them and
America in the light of democracy. ...
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