Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is a free verse poem that is filled with sensory images and small pieces of rhythm. While there is no actual rhythm or rhyme, the poem does flow with lyrically placed words. There is also this kind of double-ness within several lines of the poem. “…and know it and like it…, My respiration and inspiration,” are lines that have a sort of rhyme and repetition. It connects the two in a way like having them occur at once, his breathing, his living is his motivation. To do what? His art.
Going back to the images, there is concrete images that give a sense of realism within the poem. There are lines that show nature with leaves, rocks, shores, and streets and hills. These images are laid with other sensory details, usually having to do with scent, sound, and air. They might infer the way the feelings come and go, or how light and soft they are.
His long winding sentences give the poem a constant motion as the audience is moved from one image to the next, seeing how they all connect to explain the way Whitman sees his art.
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