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Why did Walt Whitman use the pronoun “I” so often in Song of Myself?

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

In his landmark poem "Song of Myself", Walt Whitman uses the pronoun “I” to assert a mythical strength and vitality. This frequent use of the first-person pronoun stems from two primary motivations:12

Romantic Ideals: Influenced by the Romantic movement, Whitman believed the chief function of a poet was to express their own personality in verse.13
Nationalistic Ambition: During a period of intense American nationalism, Whitman sought to cultivate a persona that embodied the spirit of the young nation. By adopting this "I," he created a symbolic, "shaggy and untamed" poetic spokesman who could address the citizens of the United States as a "kosmos".12

Ultimately, the poetic “I” in his work transcends time and space, binding the past, present, and future together. While early readers and biographers often confused this symbolic, expansive persona with the quiet, gentle man who wrote the poems, Whitman intended the “I” to represent a universal, divine connection to the regenerative power of nature and the soul.132