Read the passage. these are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me, if they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing, if they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing, if they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing. this is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is, this is the common air that bathes the globe. how does walt whitman’s use of anaphora in this passage from “song of myself” emphasize the ideas he is expressing? they contradict themselves to throw the reader off balance. they ask the reader to suspend personal opinions for a moment. they cause the reader to pause and reflect with each line. they confront the reader again and again with his ideas.