Walt Whitman's Multitudes Whitman wrote that, "The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem," and of himself, "I contain multitudes." Reading his poems, newspaper journalism, fiction, and other writings, we will consider how and why he adopted a multiplicity of identities across his career, and how over time he came to be seen as representative of his fragmented nation's identity and literature. We will also read works by writers he admired, and those who responded to his writing, in and beyond the U.S.,up to the present day."