Leaves of Grass #7

Do I contradict myself?
Very well...I contradict myself;
I am large... I contain multitudes.

I concentrate toward them that are nigh...I wait on the door-slab.
Who has done his day's work and will soonest be through with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me?
Will you speak before I am gone? Will you prove already too late?
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me...he complains of my gab and my loitering.

I too am a bit tamed... I too am untranslatable.
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

What I find very interesting was what Whitman says before, "Listener up there! Here you...what have you to confine me?" He wants to hear what the reader has to say. He wants to know another's opinion, but at the same time, he values his own opinion and believes it. He is willing to listen to others, but not take in consideration their full opinion.
When he says if he contradicts himself, he is realizing what he has been doing throughout the poems. He takes two sides to things to fully understand things, therefore although he is contradictory, he is aware and realistic. That is why he then says that he contains multitude. He has many perspectives even the ones he doesn't believe.

As Whitman continues to state how he is loitering and how he is being accused of such a thing. The world around he do not like that he isn't simply looking for answers, he is looking for more. And that is something a human can not have. To have such a high understanding would make him more than human. When he's yelling at the listener, he is yelling at the sky, therefore he's yelling at God. The reader and God are both the listeners to Whitman, therefore in a sense, he is having an argument with God. He is fighting the aspect of knowing too much. The hawk represents God's messenger as nature is looking down at Whitman. The struggle of knowledge and its journey towards discovery is a major theme and deeply conveyed in the passage.

Leaves of Grass #6

All doctrines, all politics and civilization exuge from you.
All sculpture and monuments and anything inscribed anywhere are tallied in you,
The gist of histories and statistics as far back as the records reach is in you this hour-and myths and tales the same;
If you were not breathing and walking here where would they all be?
The most renowned poems would be ashes... orations and plays would be vacuums.

All architecture is what you do to it when you look at it;
Did you think it was in the white or gray stone? or the lines of the aches and cornices?

All music is what awakens from you are reminded by the instruments,
It is not the violins and the cornets...it is not the oboe nor the beating drums-nor the notes of the baritone singer singing his sweet romanza... nor those of the men's chorus, nor those of the women's chorus,
It is nearer and farther than they.

What Whitman is describing in these passages is the power of opinion. He is saying how everything is determined by what others believe of it. Without people to acknowledge it, nothing in the world would have meaning. He creates a very close relationship with the reader as he addresses them directly with "you". He is telling the reader that without them, this book like all others would have no power; no purpose.
He continues his argument discussing architecture and music. He gives ultimate power to opinions because he says things are titled by what feelings they created, not what they are.The identity of things aren't what they are composed of, but rather what they create.
I absolutely agree with what Whitman is saying, but just reading made me realize how powerful what people believe has on things.
I related this to our class discussions on reader response criticism.
Whitman says, "The most renowned poems would be ashes." Without the opinion of others, a book would mean nothing. I mean is not criticism an opinion itself?