What Am I, After All?
What Am I, After All? - meaning Summary
Self and Name as Echo
Whitman presents the self as playfully childlike, taking delight in hearing and repeating one’s own name. The act of repetition becomes a simple pleasure and a way of knowing oneself. By inviting the reader to recognize their own similar habit, the poem suggests identity is partly performative and varied; the same name can be spoken many ways, revealing different aspects of a single person.
Read Complete AnalysesWHAT am I, after all, but a child, pleas’d with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over; I stand apart to hear—it never tires me. To you, your name also; Did you think there was nothing but two or three pronunciations in the sound of your name?
Feel free to be first to leave comment.