Question

By making himself the central allusion of the poem, the

Answer 1

Answer: D) encourage people to be more independent in their thinking.

Explanation:

Allusion is a literary device which provides a brief reference to a person/object of historical, cultural or political importance. In this excerpt from Whitman's "Song of Myself", the speaker makes an allusion to himself in the following line: "You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me". The passage introduces a crucial theme in the poem - that we should not accept someone else's experience as universal, but gain our own experience instead.  In the above-mentioned line, Whitman warns the reader that this is also applicable to the viewpoint he presents in the poem - the reader should not believe Whitman either.