Question

Read the excerpt of "Song of Myself" below. What ideal of Transcendentalism is Whitman writing about? How do you know? To successfully complete the Short Constructed Response, you must do the following: Write a claim telling which
Transcendentalist ideal Whitman is writing about. individuality/self-reliance nature as spiritual man is innately good until corrupted by society Use a piece of textual evidence from the poem to support your claim. Explain how the textual evidence supports your claim. Conclude your paragraph.

Answer 1

In "Song of Myself", Walt Whitman is writing about individuality and self reliance, as we can see from the first line of the poem: "I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself", This poem emphasizes the "Self", it can be interpreted as a "cosmic self" it can even be read as an individuality that is collective: "And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you".  

Answer 2

According to a different source, this is the passage that comes with this question:

The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night,

Ya-honk he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation,

The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen close,

Find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky.

In this passage, Whitman writes about an important idea of Transcendentalism. This is the idea of nature as spiritual. He talks about the gander (an adult male goose) and how its noise sounds to Whitman as an invitation. This shows that Whitman feels a connection to the animal, and to nature as a whole. Moreover, he argues that he believes this sound has a purpose and a place in the world. This contributes to developing the idea that nature connects all things, including humanity.