The headstrong Whitman had, by his late twenties, begun an epic poem that synthesised a contradictory, long list of his fascinations The answer, you might say, contains multitudes. Why has this one line of American poetry, written 165 years ago, survived into the digital age, and how much of Whitman's original sentiment are we really echoing? Go back far enough – through not just the timeline but time itself – and you’ll find its first usage, in Walt Whitman’s seminal 1855 poem ‘Song of Myself’, from his collection Leaves of Grass: i contain multitudes” goes one – and at least as far back as 2016, when Buzzfeed tweeted an illustration portraying the multitudinous nature of September.
You’ll find it combined with other memes, too – “ im baby, but i am also grandma. “i know i contain multitudes”, tweeted comedian Aparna Nancherla in early 2019, “because i routinely experience anxiety yet spend the whole day emailing and texting ‘no worries’ to people like i just hit the waves with my board”. “I contain multitudes”, goes one tweet about the pandemic, from July, “in that I don't like having to stay inside, but I also don't like going outside.” Not quite a meme, but ubiquitous enough to be recognisably part of online parlance in 2020, the phrase is deployed any time there might be a perceived contradiction in one’s tastes, thoughts, beliefs or behaviour. Googling the traces of the same, I figured that this piece indeed is a point of concern for students who want to avail an in-depth understanding of poetry in a not so barbaric manner that most literature classes in most high schools the world over would offer (no offence meant).Īlso, keeping in mind the number of days I haven't answered student's queries, and the number of times the ones I'd written are searched on the Internet everyday convinces me that this post is the need of the hour.You’ve probably seen it said online, in quippy social media posts and on Twitter, particularly: “I contain multitudes.” And honestly, it hasn't been out of my mind for a microsecond ever since then. However, Section 42 from 'Song of Myself' almost made me shiver the moment I took a first reading. There were at least three to four poems that caught my attention in what has been taught in the first week.
This week, I have been auditing a course on edX conducted by Harvard University called 'Poetry in America : Whitman', which is mainly coordinated by Professor Elisa New and enlightens some of the wonderful aspects of Whitman's poetry in an easy, fluid manner that encompasses across vivid interests that one might possess regarding the methods of perceiving literature.
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