Which statement best describes Whitman's stance in Song of Myself?

• A. A strict moral poem
• B. An expansive, inclusive voice that embraces humanity
• C. A personal elegy for a particular city
• D. A celebration of nature only

Answer: (B)

Whitman’s stance in Song of Myself is an expansive, inclusive voice that embraces humanity in a democratic, universal way. He uses the first-person speaker to dissolve boundaries between self and others, inviting all people—across classes, occupations, genders, races, and even the dead and the living—into the poem’s circle. The result is a sense that the self is not a private, isolated entity but a part of a larger, shared humanity and natural world. The poem’s form—free, open, with long catalogs and a flowing, breath-like rhythm—mirrors this openness and willingness to include everything and everyone.

This isn’t a strict moral sermon, nor is it a personal elegy for a specific place, nor a celebration of nature in isolation. Nature appears as part of a larger vision in which human experience, public life, and bodily reality are fundamental and interconnected.