The Voice

The sound a person makes or their own personal expression can be defined as a voice.  People often refer to their voice as their own opinion, something that they identify as their own individual values and beliefs.  One such person could say that they were just "voicing their opinion."  There are many different ways the word voice can be looked at.  Whitman does just that in "Song of Myself."  Not only does he use the word voice as a way to express the speakers opinion but he uses it both directly and indirectly.  An individual's speech or vocal expression is discussed throughout the poem.  He says, "I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person" (27).  This speaks to Whitman's acceptance of others.

Here are all the instances in which Whitman uses the motif voice in "Song of Myself."

"Through me many long dumb voices,
Voices of the interminable generations of prisoners and slaves,
Voices of the diseas'd and despairing and of thieves and dwarfs,
Voices of cycles of preparation and accretion,
And of the threads that connect the stars, and of wombs and of the
father-stuff,
And of the rights of them the others are down upon,
Of the deform'd, trivial, flat, foolish, despised,
Fog in the air, beetles rolling balls of dung.

Through me forbidden voices,
Voices of sexes and lusts, voices veil'd and I remove the veil,
Voices indecent by me clarified and transfigur'd." (17)

"My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach" (19)

"I heard the sound of the human voice....a sound I love" (19)

"Pleased with the quakeress as she puts off her boneet and talks melodiously" (25)

"My voice is the wife's voice, the screech by the rail of the stairs" (26)

"I take part....I see and hear the whole,

The cries and curses and roar....the plaudits for well aimed shots" (28)

"I laughed content when I heard the voice of my little captain,

We have not struck, he composedly cried, We have just begun our part of the fighting" (29)

"The husky voices of the two or three officers yet fit for duty" (30)

"Minding their voices peal through the crash of destruction" (34)

"My own voice, orotund sweeping and final" (34)

"You are also asking me questions, and I heard you;

I answer that I cannot answer....you must find out for yourself." (40)

"I do not say these things for a dollar, or to fill up the time while I wait for a boat;

It is you talking just as much as myself....I act as the tongue for you,

It was tied in your mouth....in mine it begins to be loosened" (41)

"The farmboy ploughing in the fields feels good at the sound of my voice" (41)

"Toss to the moaning gibberish of my dry limbs" (42)

"I too am not a bit tamed....i too am untranslatable

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world" (43)

Comments:

"I heard the sound of the human voice....a sound I love" (19)

This is one of my favorite times he talks about the voice.  Maybe it is because I can relate or maybe it is because I like the way the line sounds.  In this stanza, Whitman describes the sounds around him.  The beautiful music of the birds, the sounds of the city, alarms, fires, etc, but the sound that he loves the most is the sound of a human voice.  This could go both ways - the fact that he loves that people are expressing their opinions or maybe it has to do with just the sounds of people's voices, they are communicating, talking, conversing.  When people are talking they are doing something, they aren't just sitting around being a bum which I think is one of the Whitman's biggest beliefs about life.

"You are also asking me questions, and I heard you;

I answer that I cannot answer....you must find out for yourself." (40)

Along with the word "voice", Whitman uses the voice in other ways.  He doesn't specifically say "voice" but in these lines it is like he is telling the reader to voice up, ask around, "find out for yourself."  There is more to life than just asking questions, there is an exploration aspect.  As mentioned in the previous comment, Whitman doesn't think people should be stagnant, they need to move about.  While Whitman says he loves the human voice, I think he wants people to use it wisely.

""I too am not a bit tamed....i too am untranslatable

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world" (43)

Towards the end of the poem, Whitman says this.  A barbaric yawp, I think referring to a loud expression, maybe a scream.  Either way, this sums up the two previous quotes I mentioned.  He wants people to talk, he wants people to explore, and all the while, he wants people to freely express themselves.  He says that he is untranslatable, his words cannot be translated.


The idea of the voice helps to articulate his idea about both the self and probably the poet.  After reading all this, it is almost as if he is preaching, telling people to speak up, get out, and explore!  Maybe he is telling himself to do the same thing and he is doing so with this poem.