Lust for Life: Sexual Anthropomorphism in "Song of Myself"

In the first 25 (or so) sections of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself," the speaker espouses a philosophy of supreme interconnectedness. Considering that, in this view, all things are interconnected, perhaps I shouldn't be all that surprised that the speaker depicts nature or manifestations of nature in an erotic light at various junctures. In section 22, the speaker gives himself over to the sea, imploring it to "dash [him] with amorous wet," and in section 24, he waxes lustily over "winds whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me" and "broad muscular fields" (1345, 1348). What first struck me about these erotic characterizations was their boldness. The speaker makes no attempt to hide the fact that he, on some level or another, derives sexual pleasure from nature. This isn't really all that taboo when one places these invocations in the larger context of the poem rather than judging them in isolated form. The primary method of interpretation leaves me with the idea that the speaker is profoundly intoxicated by nature or, more broadly, by the many webs of existence that form it. This makes it even easier for him to anthropomorphize various natural features in a sexually suggestive way, but in a way that ultimately suggests a passionate love of life rather than the fetishization of sea and wind. One interesting facet of these moments is the way in which the speaker does not stick to one gender for his anthropomorphized sexual-natural forces. Instead, he seems to be aroused and amazed by female and masculine aspects in equal measure.