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SONG OF MYSELF BY WALT WHITMAN What does grass signify to us? Simple grass that grows on pavements and pathways, fields and graves. There is no such thing as death The smallest sprout shows there is really no death. There is a rejuvenation of everything in the cycle of life that God has created. The first half of the poem is filled with questions and later on they are answered. Whitman finds subject for his poetry from among common conditions and ordinary backgrounds.
In this poem, he addresses grass, where he celebrates even the smallest of Gods creations and gives to it an identity that is an integral part of the universe. A childs innocent question leads the poet to search for answers. And while the poet attempts to find these answers, he is able to relate one of the simplest of Gods creations in this cosmic world to the stature of being the handkerchief of the Lord. The desire to find answers provokes the poet to search and he starts by saying that it could be a manifestation or representation of his mind or his disposition that is woven out of hopeful green stuff.
A very positive start to the purpose and function of Gods creations. He goes on to say that it could be the handkerchief of the Lord attributing to grass divine qualities. God, he says, designedly dropt or deliberately placed grass on earth to remind man of the Creator. Given to us as a gift, the handkerchief of the Lord serves to remind us of Gods presence in nature and in our lives.
He goes on to say that perhaps grass is a child a child of the vegetation. He next wonders if grass could be a uniform hieroglyphic or a pictorial form of writing. The symbolism is that grass performs the function of words. It has a message to convey to us.
What is the message of grass? What does it say to mankind? He says that it will sprout alike in all manner of land and ground broad zones and narrow zones. It is not the property of one man or nation. It will not discriminate on grounds of colour and it will grow among black folks as among white.
It will not discriminate between people, names, tribes, professions, designations or countries. It will grow anywhere without reservation or bias. It will grow no matter who walks upon it. The next thought that occurs to him is that the grass could be the uncut hair on graves the tufts of grass that grow unevenly and hap-hazard on the mounds of graves. This last realisation prompts the poet to understand death in a different way. As he looks at the grass growing on a grave, he says that he will tenderly care for the grass.
He wonders whose grave it is on which the grass is growing. He asks if it could be transpiring or growing from the breasts of young men who lie in that grave. Men whom he feels he would have loved and respected, had he had the opportunity to know them. The grass growing on the grave makes him examine the nature of death and he continues with this line of thought till the end, that death is only a phase in our lives, perhaps just an incident and that there is life beyond death. The colour of the grass on the grave is too dark to be the white heads of old mothers. The shade of the grass on the grave is too dark to remind him of an old woman with white hair.
Perhaps he is trying to say that the body lying beneath the grave is regenerated and transforms itself into another life; it does not end with old age and death. It is darker than the colourless beards of old man. It is too dark to come from pale red roofs of mouths. He perceives many messages from the grass that grow on graves and these uttering tongues make the poet wish that he could translate (comprehend, grasp, apprehend) the messages of the dead, whether young or old and the offspring taken soon out of their laps; and to know why death occurs, for he feels that the message of the grass growing on the grave do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing. As Whitman continues, he wishes that he could understand and translate the hints about the dead men and women and offspring taken soon from their mothers laps. He then goes on to ask another pertinent question What do you think has become of the young and old men the women and children?
Surprisingly Whitman believes that they are alive and well somewhere. He says that the smallest sprout of grass shows that there is really no death. Even if there was something called death it is a continuation of life and not the culmination. It is there to lead life forward and does not wait at the end to arrest it. All life, he feels, goes on and nothing collapses. The central message then includes that our conception of death is different from what anyone supposed, for death is an extension of life and as a result man is luckier.
Thus we see how Whitman celebrates the tiniest of Gods creations and by conclusion arrives at a fuller and richer understanding of death. And as his imagination stretches in different directions, the grass and death have achieved a commonality. They are both a symbol of continuity, and this is what he celebrates in the Song of Myself.
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Research essay sample on Grave Is Too Dark Grass That Grow Death
