With these parallels, old and new, in mind the reader of 'Song of Myself' has every right to expect an epic poem on a large scale, even one of religious purport. The words are nearly the same, only that Marvell is afraid of mixing truth and fable while Whitman is keen on it moreover Whitman brings in the word myth (which has been in use only from 1838 onwards) 9) as a synonym of fable, adding 'The deep diving bibles and legends, … the elder religions.' 10)Īpart from the two great epics described by their authors as 'my song' there is a modern title which should not go unmentioned: Longfellow's 'The Song of Hiawatha' of 1855 which is all about 'primitive fables … myths and fables of eld … the elder religions,' with a kind of an Indian Christ−figure for a hero. This seems like a foreshortened version of Whitman's lines in 'Passage to India.' … the myths Asiatic, the primitive fables. The sacred Truths to Fable and old Song … 8) That Marvell was concerned with the genre of song when he read Milton, appears in his poem on Paradise Lost: he confesses to having been afraid that Milton Like Spenser and Milton, Whitman frequently invoked the Muse 6) and, in the end, he gave a name to his 'Poem of Walt Whitman' which echoes their words: 'Fierce warres and faithfull loves shall moralize my song' 7) and 'I thence ⁄ Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song.' 74) In the historical background the great English Songs of the Renaissance (not to mention the medieval epics called Song or Lied or Chanson) are looming large. It is certainly not a 'song of sixpence' nor does it belong to the kind of songs which are the lyrical counterparts of sonnets. 5) There are quite a number of ' Songs' in Leaves of Grass but only one of epic dimensions.

Song is the English equivalent of psalm and carmen and canto and chanson and Lied. 'Song of Myself,' untitled and unsectioned in the first edition of Leaves of Grass, became 'Poem of Walt Whitman, an American' in 1856 and 'Walt Whitman' in the succeeding editions, until in 1881 it became 'Song of Myself.' 4) So the finished title is the product of a number of revisions and, therefore, clearly intentional.

Song of myself