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How did Song of Myself challenge traditional ideas about poetry?

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“Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos” — Walt Whitman American poet Walt Whitman, photograph by Mathew Brady.

"Song of Myself" revolutionized American poetry by fundamentally departing from the established conventions of the 19th century. It challenged traditional ideas about poetry in several key ways:

Form and Structure: The poem abandoned traditional rhyme and meter, utilizing a new form of free verse instead. This style, which many contemporaries dismissed as unpoetic, relied on oratorical rhythms, repetition, and expansive, enumerative catalogs of American life.123
Content and Subject Matter: Whitman introduced frank, explicit imagery regarding the human body and sexual passion. By celebrating physical health and human anatomy—ranging from bowels to genitals—he defied prevailing social taboos, leading to the work being frequently challenged by censors.13
The Poetic Persona: The poem asserted a mythical, exuberant "I" that sought to express the poet's own personality and identify with the American experience. This persona was presented as a "rough," "disorderly," and "sensual" figure, contrasting sharply with the more formal, restrained voices common in literature of the era.123

Ultimately, by spiritualizing the physical and embracing a democratic, inclusive scope, Whitman emancipated poetry from contemporary constraints.42