Who started his American epic with 'I celebrate myself, and sing myself'?

• A. Emerson
• B. Poe
• C. Whitman
• D. Hawthorne

Answer: (C)

The line signals a bold, inclusive voice that defines Whitman’s expansive American epic. Opening Leaves of Grass, it sets a stance of self-celebration tied to a democratic vision, where the individual is part of a larger national tapestry. Whitman uses long, free-verse lines and wide-ranging catalogs to map the country—from bodies and nature to common people—creating an epic scope that feels both personal and universal.

That makes Whitman the best answer because this line and the work it opens are uniquely associated with his project. Emerson is a foundational figure of Transcendentalism—more about individual insight in essays and poetry than an epic-scale national poem. Poe is known for Gothic tales and compact lyric pieces, not an expansive democratic epic. Hawthorne writes morally charged fiction and shorter tales, not the expansive epic voice that Whitman embodies.