Section+19

The speaker conveys in //Song of Myself// 19 that everyone is equal and no one should be denied opportunity because of death's equal treatment of all living things.

The speaker uses a meal to symbolize opportunity. He says that “this is the meal equally set” just as life should be equally set for each person (372). The speaker shows that everyone deserves equal opportunities. The meal is also "for the wicked just the same as the righteous", which is a paradox portraying equality. Not even “a single person should be slighted or left away” (374). It is not right to put people down or turn away from them because it rejects their right to equality and therefore, their basic human rights. Since everyone is equal, “there shall be no difference between them and the rest” (377). Every person will be accepted for who they are no matter what.

The first stanza may also be interpreted to be about death's acceptance of all beings, again making everyone equal. The speaker says that no one "should be slighted or left away" (374) speaking of how everyone has to die, and no one is able to escape it. Also, he sees them "reflecting [his] own face" (380) meaning that they are similar to each other, because they are in reality, one and the same.

The speaker finds himself in a connection with other people. He uses parallelism, repeating the word "This" to demonstrate the importance of each of the actions. He sees them as “the far-off depth and height reflecting [his] own face” (380). His believes the oversoul is important in seeing his views on equality. He feels that his connection to all other people is inseparable because of equality. Furthermore, the reflection upon his own face also demonstrates the interconnectedness of all people by stressing that the speaker sees himself in others.

The speaker also purposes the idea that all have an intricate purpose in the world whether this purpose or role be big or small; even the "mica on the side of the rock has" a purpose (382-383). Mica is usually part of stratified rocks, which would also show that all of nature is compiled together as one whole. Like mentioned above the speaker does talk of equality between all mankind but also toward nature. The speaker poses questions to challenge the readers thinking of this sort of equality and asks almost confused at the fact that one would even think he were greater then nature. He says "Do you take it I would astonish? Does the daylight astonish?... Do I astonish more then they? (384-386). When the speaker uses "this hour" to describe when these thoughts are taking place it seems as if the speaker is about to die (387). Like in the prayer "Our Father" it ends with "pray for us in this hour of death" and for the speaker to use this phrase coveys the feeling of death.

In this idea of death and nature, the speaker reveals that death is a natural occurrence. Equating death with nature, the rhetorical question of whether death "astonish more than" the daylight and and redstart is asked showing that death is an ordinary part of everyday life. Death touches everything on this Earth as a daily event because it is simply a part of the circle of life as mentioned in section six of his poem.