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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 dropt,
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, or from offspring taken soon out of their mothers’ laps,
And here you are the mothers’ 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?
And what do you think has become of the women and children?
They are alive and well somewhere,
The smallest sprout shows 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 ceas’d the moment life appear’d.
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
EXPLANATION WITH CRITICAL ANALYSIS
...Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,A scented gift and remembrances designedly dropt, Bearing the owner's name someway in the comers,That we may see and remark, and say whose?
These lines form the gist of Whitman’s poetry. These suggestive words from the section ‘Grass’ of Song of Myself proves the belief in the existence of God. When a child questions the poet what the tuft of grass meant, it resulted in many explanations. The child’s question challenged the poet’s intellect. He thinks aloud if the grass is the Lord’s handkerchief. The Lord might have dropped it for mankind to ponder over whose workmanship it is. Thence automatically it would remind mankind of God - the creator of the Universe, who also is the creator of the grass. So a spear of grass would lead mankind to think of God and his ways; One is mystified to think that it is the same God who created this entire Universe, who also created the tiny, insignificant grass; yet the insignificant grass unravels the mystery of the Universe:
The smallest sprout shows there is realty no death,And if ever there was it led forward life,And does not wait at the end to arrest it,And ceas'd the moment life appear'd ...
A sprout of grass sets afoot a series of guesses, about what it exactly stands for. The poet openly puts forward his guesses. At first the grass appears to be a handkerchief of God reminding man of the existence of God. The grass also stands for the innocent childhood.
The poet emphasizes that the sprout of grass on the graves suggests that Death is not the final say in life. The sprout of grass bears evidence to the fact that Death is not an end in itself, but it is the beginning of another life.
SUMMARY AND CRITICAL APPRECIATION
The poet deals with the essence of his poetry - Grass in this section. A child in an innocent manner brings a cluster of grass and questions the poet:
‘What is the grass’?
An innocent question no doubt; but it suggests volumes of meaning. At first the poet says that he does not know the meaning of grass any better than the child does. Perhaps it may be an expression of his own personality. Again, he feels it may be the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt.
The grass would be a reminder to mankind of the greatness of God. It will set people to think about the creator of the grass. It will automatically lead to the awareness that God, who made everything in this Universe, also created the grass. Every creation of God has a purpose. The grass for example proves the existence of God. The grass is green. The green color projects the optimism of the poet. The grass arouses many associations and meanings in the mind of the poet. He guesses if:
The grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation...
Many qualities are common to the grass and the child. It is lovely, carefree, like the child. The grass unravels the mysteries of this very Universe. A child out of curiosity and innocence goes on questioning, and the answers reveal the mysteries of life. The grass is carefree and grows in all places. It has no option to grow only in specific places. It grows among the black as well as white folks, in broad as well as narrow zones. This suggests the democratic spirit which the poet always emphasizes.
Whitman presents the eternal inevitable Death in its mysterious relation to love and rebirth without challenging its mystery or loathing its potency. The theme of his poetry would remain incomplete if he does not refer to the unconquerable Death. Death is dreaded by one and all. It is the final chapter in life. That is the common accepted factor. Whitman by his approach clarifies that death is an opening to another life. He says that the grass appears:-
To me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.Tenderly will I use you curling grass...
The grass grows on the graves of the people who die. The people may be young, old, men or women. The dead grow out in the form of the ‘curling grass’. The poet tries to translate the ideas of the dead, expressed in the form of the ‘curling grass’. He questions the grass to tell him of the well-being of the dead. He thinks of what has happened to the dead. He knows that they are in other forms but not disintegrated. The scientific theory that matter is never destroyed has been expressed by the poet:
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,And if ever there was it led forward life, andDoes not wait at the end to arrest it,And cease'd the moment life appear'd.
He feels the grass replying that the dead are alive. Death is the continuity of life. The smallest sprout, though small, insignificant and common, becomes significant as the process involved in the creation of the Universe is the same in the creation of the grass also. The existence of the grass on the graves suggests that the dead are still living in a different shape. The grass suggests that death is transformed into a new life.