Respond to the following question in a well-developed essay of at 750 words. Be as specific as possible, backing up your assertions with quotes and specific details from the sources below.
Do not use any sources other than the sources below. The point is to tell what you think about the topic, not what everyone on the Internet has to say about it.
The question is:
Few writers have had a stronger sense of mission than Walt Whitman. In fact, he believed that he had quite a few missions as a poet. Please discuss what you believe to be two of Whitman’s chief missions and show specifically how his work attempts to fulfill them.
Use only these sources (No Outside Sources):
1. The “Walt Whitman Poems” located in the materials file: “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” “The Wound Dresser,” and “Reconciliation” Also, “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” in this website: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/out-cradle-endlessly-rocking
2. Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, Sections 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 15, 21, 24, 32, 52 in this website: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45477/song-of-myself-1892-version