2.1 Individual Self
The first layer is about Individual Self. Whitman’s view of individual self is both bodily and spiritual. On this layer, readers can perceive the influence of transcendentalism on Whitman. Whitman is the first American poet to celebrate the body. He worships the material body, either male or female, all its organs and functions. In “I Sing the Body Electric”:“If any thing is sacred the human body is sacred”（Whitman, 2012:37）. To Whitman, the body is not superior and prior to the soul. It is as important as the soul in the construction of one’s individual life. In this poem, the poet walks among the common people, notices their bodies at work and considers human bodies as the most beautiful and vigorous. In the poem of “I Dream’d in a Dream”, Whitman describes a dream of homosexual republic, “Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love,” (Whitman, 2012:51) It is a dream containing sexual behavior and imagining a city founded on “robust love”, suggesting not just love between men and women, between men and men and women and women. In his poems, we often confront his description with admiration of the parts of human body.
Leaves of Grass testifies Whitman’s faith in soul as he says, “I believe in you my soul”. Whitman believes that when a reader opens Leaves of Grass, he is first faced with the Bodily Self and by reading the poems he is confronted with the Spiritual Self. The body is mortal, while the soul is immortal. Like the celebration of the Body Self, he sings for the Spiritual Self with the same passion. Especially in “Song of Myself ”: “I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.”(Whitman, 2012:12) Whitman incites the reader to understand the mystical journey he takes. It is a journey of the poet’s body and soul to integrate with nature.
Whitman is a poet of both elements in the body and soul. In general, Whitman believes that the body and soul can not be separated and are equal. Bodily Self is the origin of the Spiritual Self. We could comprehend the soul only through the medium of the body. They together make up a complete Individual Self. When Whitman celebrates the Self, he celebrates the marriage of body and soul, two distinct but inseparable aspects of his Self. To Whitman, all matter is as divine as the soul, since the body is as sacred as the soul, when he sings for the body or its performances, he is singing a spiritual chant. To him, body and soul are nurturing each other. The body proves the soul, and the soul proves the body. In his poems, readers can feel the balance between bodily Self and spiritual Self.
2.2 American Self
Whitman doesn’t limit his Self to individual layer. He extends it to a higher layer, that is, the American Self. Whitman’s American Self contains two parts: freedom, egalitarianism. These two components reflect the unique features of a new American of Whitman’s times. As an American poet of democracy, Whitman regards America as “the greatest poem” and considers everything is “good”. In a word, Whitman endows his American Self with a sense of unity and interrelation of many elements of the social and cultural interaction of the 19th century.
Freedom is and will forever be the most important of American spirits, which Whitman also sees as a main theme in his poems. He once wrote, “What do you suppose will satisfy the soul, except to walk free and own no superior？”（Whitman, 2001:353）He spares no effort to celebrate the freedom a new America bears. In his times, Whitman was known as a liberal. In many poems of Leaves of Grass, Whitman gives voice to theme. “Song of Myself ” celebrates the freedom achieved in the political revolution, but at its core is the celebration of personal experience. Whitman faithfully believes in freedom. Readers can get evidence from his poems celebrating Columbus, the representative of great free spirits. He exposes any who impedes the way of liberty and promotes anyone who move towards liberty. Freedom is also well demonstrated in the forms of his work, that is free verse. The use of free verse, especially the use of colloquial language is really a kind of embodiment of Whitman’s idea of freedom. Just as the following lines in “Song of Myself ”:
Have you reckon’d a thousand acres much?
Have you reckon’d the earth much?
Have you practis’d so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems? (Whitman, 2012:15)