SOURCE: "Who Speaks in Whitman's Poems?" in Bucknell Review, Vol. 28, No. 1, 1983, pp. 121-43.

In the following essay, Breitwieser suggests that Whitman's usage of multiple voices in Leaves of Grass has political parallels. Breitwieser emphasizes the conflict in the poems between the voice of the small, individual "I" and that of the large, magnanimous, universal "I."

Why even speak of "I," he dreams, which interests me almost not at all?

—Williams, Paterson

The breadth of the problem is great, for the poet is representative. He stands among partial men for the complete man, and apprises us not of his wealth, but of the common wealth. The young man reveres men of genius, because, to speak truly, they are more himself than he is.

—Emerson, "The Poet"

I

The word I in Leaves of Grass seems to be used by two speakers, one timid, gentle, frequently disconsolate, the other large...