Section+45

In stanzas 1-3 of //Song of Myself//, the speaker includes parallelism and tone to accentuate the infiniteness of the universe. Demonstrating that life, too, is an ongoing cycle, he imitates the sequences in the stages of life, depicting this process as he opens the first line exclaiming, “O span of youth! Ever-push’d elasticity! / O manhood, balanced, florid, and full” (1167-68). The energetic tone in which these exclamations are produced, creates a lively attitude associated with youth and childhood. By using parallelism in the next line with the repetition of the word “O,” the speaker stresses the comparison between childhood and manhood. While the first line appears energetic, the next is mellower, with a much more calm and relaxed quality to it. In describing both stages, he portrays childhood as something soft and flexible, while manhood is more complicated. These feelings are expressed through his revulsive tone as he shouts, “My lovers suffocate me! / . . . noiselessly passing handfuls out of their hearts, and giving them to be mine” (1172,1179). The physical imagery hints to an irritation towards these lovers, so that the speaker comes to greet “Old age superbly rising! O welcome, ineffable grace of dying days!” (1180). Part of the speaker's irritation towards lovers, is that they are women. Because Whitman is homosexual, this implies that he does not swoon over the attention of his female companions, but instead is looking to others for comfort. The speaker's description of the feelings he shares towards women can be somewhat compared to the intimate feelings he has towards God. Whitman At the mention of dying, the speaker eagerly embraces death as an escape from adulthood. Death comes after old age as the last stage of actual living, followed by a parallel to the first line with repetition of the “O.” Using parallelism, the speaker emphasizes this cycle, while still demonstrating an enthusiastic tone towards dying as he did for youth. Without fear, he eagerly receives death, illuminating the hint of hope to proceeding in this eternal cycle.

In stanzas 4-8, the speaker provides paradoxes in the idea that he is without fear of death because everything, including life, is infinite. By stating that “every condition promulges. . . itself. . . and the dark hush promulges as much as any” (1181-82), he explains that all conditions, further catalyze several other ones to follow. Additionally, his use of repetition especially when stating that "wider and wider they spread, expanding, always expanding, outward and outward, and forever outward" (1182) glorifies God and his creation and the speaker puts an overall emphasis on the mysteries of God. Referring to death as the "dark hush" exemplifies this phenomenon as he displays the belief that life ensues death, a contradiction because although “there is no stoppage” to the abundance of life on earth, one’s life must at one point come to a halt (1190). Although the elaboration that “were this moment reduced back to a pallid float. . . we should surely bring up again where we now stand,” is somewhat true, it is not entirely (1191-92). Pallid represents a pale color associated with sickness and death, yet the speaker expresses that life is infinite and would thereafter spring up again. Life in general is indeed ongoing; however, if all life on earth were extinguished or even reduced to a sickly pallor, the cycle for those individuals and beings would not and could not spring forth once again.

Despite these paradoxes, the speaker concludes section 45 with stanza eleven in which he portrays death as an escape from the detested adulthood shown before. When referring back to death he states, “My rendezvous appointed. . . I come on perfect terms/ the great Camerado, the lover true for whom I pine will be there,” stressing his yearning to be reunited with God whom he claims to have a personal relationship, shown through the intimate diction utilized (1198-200). His intimate language with God, however, does not imply that he physically desires to be connected with Him, but instead emotionally as in a share of knowledge. Instead of rejecting the affection of this lover as he did in previous stanzas, the speaker welcomes death to be reunited with this “lover true,” asserting that he is comfortable with death because of the knowledge that God will be there waiting and that there is a life beyond the one here on earth, which he addresses but fails to understand entirely.