Walt Whitman was an American poet from Long Island. All through his life this prolific writer was considered an example of spiritual value and moderation. His most famous collection, "Leaves of Grass", has been regarded as one of the world's major literary works and stands as a revolutionary development in poetry. The once so essential patterns of poetic expression such as rhyme and metric are totally neglected in Walt Whitman's poetry. His free verse and innovative rhythm mark the difference between him and any other democratic writer of his time. From this famous collection comes Song of Myself, in my opinion the greatest parallel ever drawn between society and the individual. The greatness of this poem lies in its intrinsic political message, its whimsical structure and its relation to the personal lifestyle of the author.
             It is an excellent work, because never before in the history of American Literature, and never after Whitman had anyone addressed social and political issues from the intimacy of the individual self. Walt sings a song to himself, but really he speaks for the human race and universal harmony through his own experiences. This poem presents Whitman at his best. Song of Myself is, in my view, a drama of democratic identity in which the poet clearly seeks to balance and reconcile major conflicts in the body politics of America: the conflict between the individual people and the world, individualism and equalitarianism, liberty and union, the South and the North, the farm and the city, labor and wages, black and white, male and female, religion and science. It is the best of his poems, because this poem is one in which he openly writes
             without abiding by any conventions. His own free verse technique serves as a democratizing device, inscribing through the poem the pattern of many and one. The e pluribus unum that was the revolutionary seal of the American republi
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