“I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one’s self…”
Walt Whitman may have confused many of his readers the first few times they’ve read his poems. Considering his work was never meant to be read fast. I feel as if it was meant to be read slow and comprehensive. In “Song of Myself” he constantly switches roles between an advice giver, a very demanding person and a confused individual. Many times in the poem he makes himself feel higher than all gods possible. In the 19Th century the Church was the most powerful source. However, when Whitman was being the “advice giver” he told his reader and himself that they have to look at themselves as something higher than that. He took quite a risk writing those lined above in his poems but that was how he was able to get his message across. I chose this image because its a photo of a church in the 19Th century in Brooklyn Heights where Whitman grew up. 