Customer Reviews

Song of Myself (Dover Thrift Editions)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As with so much of Stephen Mitchell's work, the most important thing is to know what it is before you buy it. It may be exactly what you want, or it may be just the opposite; there's usually not much room in between.

In the present case, Mitchell has done something that some readers might consider pretty hubristic and perhaps even sacrilegious: he has produced an edited version of Walt Whitman's great "Song of Myself" that corresponds to no published version whatsoever.

How? Well, he started with the original (1855) edition of the poem, and then considered _every single change_ Whitman ever made in the poem clear up to his death in 1892. If Mitchell thought the change improved the poem, he left it in; if not, not. The result, for obvious reasons, is a "Song of Myself" that Whitman himself never actually wrote.

That's _not_ necessarily a bad thing. I respect Mitchell's taste and judgment, and I happen to agree with him that some of Whitman's later alterations made the poem worse. In fact I think Mitchell's edition is extremely fine.

But some readers may be looking for a version of "Song of Myself" that reflects Whitman's taste and judgment rather than Mitchell's. So let the buyer be aware.

At any rate I share Mitchell's high estimation of this poem and I'm happy that he's published his edition of it. Whitman belongs with Emerson and Thoreau on a shortlist of great American sages; this single poem is a large part of the reason why.

Special preview note:

I have to say these reviews confuse me because I see nothing about Stephen Mitchell in the book I hold in my hands. I don't know where the reference comes from at all, so I am going to write as if I don't know what the reviewers are using as a reference to Mitchell... and now I see, those reviewers were reading an entirely different version of the book - so if you are interested in the Dover edition, my review stands. If you are looking at the Shambala edition, what I say still stands, for the most part... except I haven't read the Mitchell edits and now I understand some of the disdain! And it makes me VERY curious, would like to read both versions side-by-side.)

From the preface: This dover edition, first published in 2001, is a unabridged republication from the first 1855 edition of "Leaves of Grass."

I sat here, today, re-reading some of the sections I had highlighted from my first read of this epic-length-poem. I wondered, "What would the world be like if each of us took the time to write a 'Song of Myself' according to our own witness of the world we live within?

Walt Whitman does exactly that in this poem - he doesn't seek to be understood, he doesn't seek to please the reader, he is simply being present to his world and then capture his meandering path into words and serve it onto the page.

Then it is up to us, as the readers, to take our spoon-fuls of Whitman and savor each one.

There is much to be learned, experienced, enjoyed, discovered in these words within this very slim volume. Savor each one and consider writing your own song.

Now I am off to begin mine.

Reading Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself," he seems to have lived a thousand years and not yet lost his innocence. The "Song of Myself" reads as a inventory of the earth's "plenty," or as a benevolent God might observe his people. Whitman is a celebrant of all things earthy and American. I believe he is correct when he says, "These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me," (354) but Whitman is certainly the first to collect all of these thoughts and record them so together and beautifully. He seems like an Eastern philosopher at times when he speaks of the cycles of earth.

He is high on life; a little too much at times, perhaps. In victory and defeat he finds joy. His candidness about his acceptance of women and men, races and creeds, seems ahead of its time.

The descriptions of the motion of life in sections 15, 31, and 33 (and many others) paints a picture of constant energy across the land and surrounding sea. He moves from line to line as he sweeps across the land, profiling the deck-hand, the paving man, the conductor, the drover, and these words are rich in images for us to imagine the era he lived in.

To read this poem in our age of instant electronic connectivity, we cannot quite carry the tune as well. So many of these occupations have faded away, we have left the fields for office space.

Excellent reading. Very well written and easy to stay involved. I recommend this to everyone who wants to improve their vocabulary or just learn about the depth of detail that exist to those who look for it.

Song of Myself is Walt Whitman's masterpiece and thus one of the greatest poems ever. The major work in the initial Leaves of Grass edition, he labored on it until the final 1881 version. There is some disagreement about various versions' merits, but it is clear to me and most others that the last is definitive - nay, near-perfect. However, the differences are often greatly exaggerated; they are really quite small, confined mostly to punctuation and section breaks. The first version has eccentric punctuation, including an astounding number ellipses, and lacks sections; the final has essentially standard punctuation and many sections. The poem is virtually the same in both but far easier to read in the latter. This edition is ideal for those wanting to compare them. That said, the poem's genius was overwhelmingly clear from the first. Whitman's mini-epic is indeed a song of himself in that he was the first modern poet to be frank about his mind and, more ground-breakingly, his body. He unashamedly relays thoughts about everything from landscapes to politics to race but also viscerally describes physical reactions to everything from manual labor to homosexual stimuli. Song is that truly rare poem that satisfies both intellectually and on a more primal level. The former comes via Whitman's Emerson-influenced transcendentalism. His near-pantheistic view of life, nature, God, and humanity is sweepingly awe-inspiring; he vividly portrays the unity and divinity of all. Like Emerson, his work is in the best sense inspirational; his vision of human divinity and possibility is a welcome one that has given pep to millions. Whitman also set out to be the first real poet of America and democracy, and Song is the fullest expression of this. Almost every aspect of America is celebrated: its unparalleled natural resources, its cosmopolitan population, its social and political institutions, etc. Celebrated perhaps above all is the American spirit: vast yet expanding, liberty-loving, and in the truest sense democratic. Whitman can make even the most hardened American feel patriotic; it is very hard not to be affected by his panorama of America's mostly untapped greatness. Yet the poem is far from jingoistic; it indeed gives us much to think about through its presentation of problems then facing the nation, especially sexual and racial oppression. In short, the greatest tribute to Song is that it contains as much of America as any poem can - indeed, far more than anyone could have thought possible. One must also not fail to mention its ground-breaking form. Whitman is of course credited with popularizing - and all but introducing - free verse in America, and Song was its major exponent. His long, unrhymed lines match his subject, which is far too large to be otherwise contained; few poems fit form to content more thoroughly. So powerful and engrossing is this that it enchants even me, normally a passionate traditional verse advocate. Whitman's genius, especially here, is so great that it transcends everything; his stature and influence are such that anyone even remotely interested in poetry must read him, and this is the place to start. Song is well worth reading on its own, but the fact that it is in Leaves of Grass, which everyone should have anyway, and many other places makes a standalone very hard to justify unless one wants both versions in one. The important thing at any rate is to read it in some form.

I always have this book in my travel bag. Hiking the John Muir trail - perfect. A cafe in Budapest - perfect. The Shinkansen train in Japan - perfect. A hammock in Costa Rica - perfect. It's tiny, beautiful, and invigorating - it reminds me of why I/we live. It's learned and raw and revealing and divine; it articulates the sorrow and glory of being human.

In my opinion, like the Bible, it is a book everyone should read once.

Mitchell did take some liberties by collating different versions of Whitman's work, but keep in mind that Walt re-wrote this poem time and time again. I have read probably a dozen versions of this peom and this is no less valuable than any of the others. Mitchell has fine taste and all the words are Walt's, and Mitchell adequately explains his reasoning in the preface. So, in contrast to what some of the other reviewers have written: If you're going to read this poem only once, Mitchell has presented a great version here.

Walt Whitman may have recorded one short poem on an Edison cylinder before his death in 1892. This recording presents Orson Welles reciting significant passages from the long poem "Song of Myself." In an earlier version, the poem announced Whitman's emergence as a poet--offering, in the body of the poem, the first announcement of the name of the maker of this new, fertile book.

The performance is an interesting auxilliary to a reading of the poem. Sections 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 14, 15, 21, 24, 26, 27, 28, 31, (33), 46, 48, 51, and 52 are presented. Those who find Welles' voice pleasing will enjoy the performance for certain. It raises some of the familiar questions of melodrama etc. common when actors record poetry. Still, without a significant "authorial" performance to prefer, this is quite wonderful to hear.

Like the poetry of many, Whitman's is certainly composed for reading aloud and auditing. As we have largely lost this tradition (outside of the poetry slam), Orson Welles provides a useful instance of what it means to "sound" the text.

Song of Myself is an enjoyable, circuitous trek through the United States of the mid-19th century - and the very human feelings and observations are still true and now.

How can Stephen Mitchell even think of such an abberation - editing Walt Whitman's greatest poem? Sure, there are several versions of the Song of Myself, but if you want to read Whitman, read the original. The first version is the most powerful, and Whitman toned it down over the years, turning it into "poetry" rather than his initial burst of enthusiasm. There are several editions of the poem that will let you get the true texts: for example, the Library of America's complete Whitman has both the first version of Leaves of Grass and the "deathbed" version, which Whitman revised shortly before his death. There are other versions throughout Whitman's career, as he added poems to the Leaves, and tinkered with existing poems. But this book is a sham. Avoid it.

this book is only 1.50 if you buy it in a store, its not worth the shipping and handeling