Poems are centralized as written expressions of thoughts, emotions, and/or ideas written by the author to express a theme in an art form that appeals to our senses. Through the words written in poems, we perceive images that can appeal to our senses of: sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. Not only can poetry express a certain theme or idea on a vast range of subjects, but it can also reflect the time period from which it emerged. Throughout time, the expression of culture, sexuality, and religion, three major aspects of our society, seem to be subjects that are always changing. When Walt Whitman was becoming an influential poet and writer, during the later half of the 1800's, it was very common for writers and poets to write about things that did not stir up too much emotion, controversy or rage due to it's content. Writers definitely did not write about love and sexuality as well as many other taboo subjects. Walt Whitman did not appear to be a man from his time period because the themes he expressed in his poems and the senses that were aroused from his poems were not typical of the poetry from his era.
             Poetry is one of the oldest art forms, which originated from music and plays. Typical poems from Walt Whitman's time used the rhyme scheme format because it set a melodic tone similar to music and it helped actors in plays to remember their lines. Looking at Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" it can be noticed that he sets himself free from the traditional rhyme scheme and uses a new technique of free verse, which was never used before. The use of metered rhyme was so traditional that when Whitman tried something different, he formed a new method of writing poems. His use of free verse broke the limitations of conventional writing. In the opening lines of his poem, Whitman writes, "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." T...