"Song of Myself" - Favorite Lines

I loafe and invite my soul,

I lean and loafe at my ease....observing a spear of summer grass.

Loafing, as suggested in class, is the opposite of productivity. It is the cringe on the parent's brow as they watch you waste your life away in a near vegetative comatose state in front of a television or computer screen. In fact, one could probably argue that these zombified youths have no souls, especially not after a few hours of Jersey Shore. However, Whitman probably did not have this type of loafing in mind when he wrote his poem. Spring breezes and Summer skies, Whitman is describing a type of loafing that most people of my generation would find odd to do. Lying out in the sun, observing "a spear of summer grass" is most likely a pastime that people have only partaken in sparingly in their busy, productive-orientated domesticated lives. True loafing is freedom, a concept that we think we're familiar with, but are disastrously wrong in thinking so. Even our so-called "loafing" in front of the computer is simply procrastination and a futile struggle against the inevitable strings that pull us towards being functioning members in society. So what is the loafer's freedom and what in the world does the soul have to do with it?

"I loafe and invite my soul", Whitman writes, chants, sings, oozes. From this line, we can conclude that the soul and loafing are interconnected (probably two New Age college kids holding hands and groping each other's spiritual energy). But what in the world is the soul and how does one invite it by loafing? The "soul" is the essence of the self and as Socrates enjoys suggesting: "know thyself". To peel away the demands, commands and expectations the world has piled onto you from the day you were born is the only way to really get to know the soul. Loafing, in this case is stop everything you are doing and simply focus on the feeling of "existing". To return to such a basic mode of living and perception, it is no wonder that Whitman is absorbed in "observing a spear of summer grass". If one can appreciate a blade of grass, one can appreciate the multifaceted complexities of human beings. After all, the blade of grass is metaphorically the common denominator to all life, hence "Leaves of Grass" (even leaves are made of grass!). This is a direly important message during Whitman's time where tension in the air is thick between the North and the South. Freedom is not the power to do whatever you desire, but to remove the influences of the external and simply see, feel, sense as yourself.

The reason I really picked these two lines is because I have actually loafed around in a park once and simply stared at the sky and the grass for a few hours without a care in the world. I believe it is important to spend time alone with one's self in order to really understand and feel the essence of your being. The feeling one gets when discovering the bare bones of one's existence is a wonderful revelation that is nearly impossible to explain. Language becomes more and more inaccurate at describing the farther down the hierarchical ladder of senses it needs to go. Though, I suppose if one could explain profundity with something as crude as language, it wouldn't be very profound to start with. As Whitman suggests, it's better to just strip naked and run off into the woods and feel it yourself.