 Whitman also incorporates his three principles into war, but deems war meaningless. In passage 18, he addresses the equality between the people of two opposing sides of war.

In essence, Whitman explains that he will play music for both the winners and losers of war because both are just as important. He goes on to say that it is just as important to lose as it is to win. 
 In other words, people who take part in wars turn out to be heroes. Some heroes become famous, but the ones that are not famous are just as great. Whitman places a high value on equality. It shows that war cannot prove anything because everyone is equal. No one person is superior to another, nor one army to another. With this, Whitman demotes the value of war to nothing and that the value of equality is the greatest.

	Although a naïve idea to prevent war by publishing a poem, Whitman’s ideas were not wrong. His three principles which provided the foundation for his philosophy are hard work, experience and equality. He stressed the importance of hard work and its impact on oneself and society. Most importantly, Walt Whitman saw himself as a teacher and wanted to portray his ideas through his poetry. He addressed these principles throughout his poem “Song of Myself” in an effort to awaken the rational side of people. The rational side would allow people to understand the meaning of war – nothing other than death. Through teaching, Whitman wanted to drill his three principles into the people of the nation, thus paving way for the nation to prevail.
