Sexual Frankness in Walt Whitman's Song of Myself

Abstract

Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself is widely considered as the milestone in modern poetry because of his frank sexual depiction of the American culture, which ultimately gave rise to an epoch of counter culture. The poem is a breakaway from the established tradition of writing poetry, which was generally based on praise of nature, the God and sermons. It is a fine example of distinctive philosophy of nature of man and the society. The use of sexual frankness in his writings gave rise to a new philosophic epoch, which challenged the entire literary trend in America and in other parts of the world.