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.