Connected

     In cantos 21 through 24, Whitman elaborates on his idea that all humans are equals and connected to everything and everyone. Whitman argues that there is "no stander above men and women or apart from them," meaning that no one may be above the other or apart from one another because all humans are the same and dependent upon others. The author also shows his feeling of connectedness to everyone else and the care he feels towards others when he states, "whoever degrades another degrades me, and whatever is done or said returns at last to me." The thoughts presented in the three cantos are not new, but simply rehash and better explain Whitman's thoughts of equality and connection shown in canto 15, which boil down to a statement by the author towards the end of canto 15:

The city sleeps and the country sleeps, 

The living sleep for their time, the dead sleep for their time,
The old husband sleeps by his wife and the young husband sleeps by his wife;
And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them,
And such as it is to be of these more or less I am,
And of these one and all I weave the song of myself.

With these words, Whitman shows that, in his belief, there's no way to compose the song of himself without including the songs of others--everyone is connected and, ultimately, no one surpasses another.


Author: Patrick Pacheco