A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it
is any more than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful
green stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we
may see and remark, and say Whose?
Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe
of the vegetation.
Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow
zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the
same, I receive them the same.
And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.
Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them;
It may be you are from old people and from women, and
from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps,
And here you are the mother's laps.
This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old
mothers,
Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.
O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths
for nothing.
I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men
and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring
taken soon out of their laps.
What do you think has become of the young and old men?
What do you think has become of the women and
children?
They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprouts show there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait
at the end to arrest it,
And ceased the moment life appeared.
All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and
luckier.
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summary
From guest lookingforanswers (contact)
ok for english class i need to analyze this poem and its meaning, as well as how it relates to walt whitman if you could help me out that would be great -
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To guest lookingforanswers
Whitman has taken a single topic and analysed it and the things it conjures up in his mind.
Grass one of the most humble yet most plentiful, diverse and powerful plants there is. There are many types of grass and it serves many purposes.
It is food for a wide variety of animals, it is a canvas on and around which gardeners paint flower pictures, it is a covering for wasteground, gardens and graves amongst other things. It is a source of inspiration growing in the most awkward places from seaside sand dunes to mountain passes, it is soft and pliant yet it can grow through concrete.
It can take the ugliest of man made monstrosities and convert it into a beautiful site. It can take away the ugliness of death and replace it with life.
All of this and more is written in these lines if we look at them as carefully as Whitman looked at the child's handful of grass.
Likewise perhaps he is also saying if we look closely at anything we can hope to find good things as well as bad.
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weeping
From guest Livy (contact)
as we pass each day of our lives we become one more blade of grass, one more memory...its what we do..it made me think we go from green to brown to gray with each day...its what this means to me...passing on of our life... -
umm well....
From guest heather honan (contact)
what makes this poem so special??? why is it so important??? what or who was this poem influenced by? please if anyone knows then help me out....i'm doing a project for school -
Awe-inspiring
Whitman is Whitman. Simply amazing. True poets don't need grand subjects or gaudy metaphors, but rather the most pure unequivically simple objects to evoke emotion. He engineers his words about grass to be great symbolic and philisophical questions about life. With the incorporation of the child, it makes me realize that the themes aren't too obscure and profound, but rather things all children ponder, silently, letting it all whoosh and transmitt in their heads, when the rest of the world is oblivious, except for the Whitmans that write it down so the rest of the world can wash in it. -
Ah a child's curiosity brought on all this? that's amazing simply amazing...I love the metaphor and imagery of this piece..Whitman writes with such beauty...its a good thing I read this cause I have a project due in English on him and now I know some of the literary techniques he uses...this write on grass was just fantastic...it's got me wondering now....--Unique
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this is for the 41%
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The poem was beautifully written. It brought me back to my childhood. His usage of words and his description brings the poem to life
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Have I mentioned lately that I am in love with Whitman's words?
Anyone that can create a masterpiece out of grass, of all things, is incredible. But I think this serves as a message that even the simplest things contain poetry. -
So deep and thoughtful even when contemplating something so simple and every day, as grass.
"the smallest shoots show that there really is no death"...
I feel in this passage, Whitman is trying to push us past our narrow concepts of death, even perhaps sharing with us his thoughts on reincarnation, which must have been pretty radical
in his day and age. His writing has a beautiful misty quality
about it which nevertheless, clears the senses. Fantastic -
I think Whitman was trying to slap whoever said "show, don't tell" in the face with this one. This proves that whole school of thought. How can you "show" a blind man what the color green is? You have to TELL them. I think that was kind of they way he leaned in this one, and really, it was the only way he could've answered the kid's question. Or maybe it was a question he asked himself, and like AP said above, the grass is just a metaphor for various things that Whitman could relate it to. The last line gave me goose bumps. I wish Whitman was my daddy.
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wow this smarty is in awe. what is the grass? indeed it is a living and breathing part of our world but it< like in this poem, can be used in so many descriptions that basically the grass is a home of the patient mind. waiting to unfold it's mysteries. i love this sooo much because it goes in depth through a child's question a whole world opens
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There are some great metaphors in this piece, making you wonder at all the things that can be compared to something so simple as grass. And the idea that a child's simple question brought about all this conjecture is an interesting one. "Out of the mouths of babes" indeed.
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