te a series of “Calamus” poems, named after the Calamus plant. James Miller interprets this as blatantly phallic, and suggests that the amity from which Leaves stems was with another man.“the ‘Calamus’ poems seemed like a different type of confession…suggesting that Whitman’s central inspiration experience was not a romance but a close male comradeship…ardent, turbulent, and ambivalent…the calamus plant is clearly phallic in its obvious symbolism.” (Miller 46)Perhaps the most cherished single poem within Leaves is “Song of Myself”. It is the opening poem of the work, and is probably the most often recognized poem of Whitman’s writings. It sets the tone as Whitman makes a profound reflective statement:“I celebrate myself,And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me good belongs to you.” (Whitman 25)With this opening proclamation of his own life’s study, Whitman encompassed the reader into his life’s observation as he answers the question “What is the grass?” using long and descriptive stanzas to interject the feeling of wonder he had about his everyday life. James Miller comments on “Song of Myself”:“By far the best, as well as the longest poem…was the opening ‘Song of Myself.’ Like no other poem in American literature—indeed unlike any poem ever written before anywhere—this long self-centered and prophetic chant…seemed designed to shock and startle, surprise and disturb.” (Miller 47)As other critics have done, Miller describes Whitman and particularly Leaves of Grass as a prophetic work, visionary and predictive. However, critics have also taken the opposite viewpoint on the work. Some take the opinion that Whitman had a desire to be prophetic, but failed. Roy Harvey Pearce writes:“The hard fact—so its seems to me—is that Whitm...
