Why has this one line of American poetry, written 165 years ago, survived into the digital age, and how much of Whitman's original sentiment are we really echoing? Go back far enough – through not just the timeline but time itself – and you’ll find its first usage, in Walt Whitman’s seminal 1855 poem ‘Song of Myself’, from his collection Leaves of Grass: i contain multitudes” goes one – and at least as far back as 2016, when Buzzfeed tweeted an illustration portraying the multitudinous nature of September. You’ll find it combined with other memes, too – “ im baby, but i am also grandma. “i know i contain multitudes”, tweeted comedian Aparna Nancherla in early 2019, “because i routinely experience anxiety yet spend the whole day emailing and texting ‘no worries’ to people like i just hit the waves with my board”. “I contain multitudes”, goes one tweet about the pandemic, from July, “in that I don't like having to stay inside, but I also don't like going outside.” Not quite a meme, but ubiquitous enough to be recognisably part of online parlance in 2020, the phrase is deployed any time there might be a perceived contradiction in one’s tastes, thoughts, beliefs or behaviour. You’ve probably seen it said online, in quippy social media posts and on Twitter, particularly: “I contain multitudes.”
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