Morgan O’Donald
Period 2
12/8/12
A. Song of Myself #6 by Walt Whitman
B. A child comes up to a man and asks him “What is the grass?” The man doesn’t know how to answer
the child at first but then he begins to think of what the grass may symbolize. After a lot of thinking he
comes to the conclusion that grass symbolizes that everything is connected and that life never truly
ends.
C.
Lines
“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,
Analysis
A child, holding a handful of grass, comes up to a
man and asks him what the grass is. The man feels
that he does not know any more than the child
about grass, and wonders how he can answer the
child.
He thinks that it may be a flag of his character,
which is made of woven green grass. In this line the
color green symbolizes hope.
He thinks it might be the Lords handkerchief,
something that God gave to us to remember him
by. So that when we see the grass we can ask who
It belongs to, and think of God.
Maybe the grass is just a child of the other plants.
A uniform hieroglyphic is a form of writing that
everyone can read. He is saying that the grass is like
that because it grows the same everywhere, and it
grows the same for everyone no matter what color
they are or where they live.
This line connects the two parts of the poem. The
part before it is reflecting on the grass while the
part after it is discussing death. It is also saying that
the grass is like hair because it is covering up the
graves like it covers someone’s head.
He’s saying that maybe the grass is growing from
the chest of young men, and he is wondering if he
would have loved them if he knew them while they
were alive. Then he says that maybe the grass is
growing from old people, or children that died
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.”
while they were young. He also says that that
children were taken out of their mothers laps,
representing that they died, and the grass became
someone to hold them.
These lines are saying that that grass is too dark to
come from the white heads of old mothers, and
that it is darker than the beards of the old men,
and that it grows from the mouths of the diseased.
He says that since the grass comes from the
mouths of dead people that they must have
something to say, because it wouldn’t grow like
that without a reason to.
The man wishes that he could find out more about
the dead people who are in the grass. He wants to
know who they were when they were alive.
He asks the reader what they think has become of
the young and old men, women and children who
are buried in the grass.
The man concludes that the people are still alive
somewhere, and that the sprouts of grass
represent that nothing is really dead. He says that
anything that led life doesn’t stop living, and that
this has been happening since life appeared.
He also concludes that life goes on and on, that it
never collapses, and that dying isn’t a bad thing,
and that is it better than what people make it out
to be.
D. Literary Devices
i. Repetition: “Or I guess” (lines 5, 9, 10), “It may be” (line 17, 18, 19)
-Whitman says this because he cannot say what grass is because he does not know, so
he writes or I guess, three times when thinking of ideas that would represent what grass
is.
ii. Assonance: “And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing” (line 26)
-The purpose of this device is to stress the vowel “o” to make the line flow better
iii. Metaphor: “the grass is itself a child” (line 9), “it is the handkerchief of the Lord” (line 5), and
“it is a uniform hieroglyphic” (line 10)
-The reason metaphor is used in these lines is to show the man’s ideas of what grass is.
iv. Alliteration: “They are alive and well” (line 32)
-This literary device is used to make the line flow, and to help solidify that life goes on
even after death by bringing attention to the word alive.
v. Hyperbole: “I perceive after all so many uttering tongues” (line 25)
- The man can’t actually see the diseased people talking, but it gives emphasis to the
idea that life goes on after death.
E. The tone of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself #6 is inquisitive. Throughout the poem the man is
pondering what the meaning of grass is, and what happened to the people who are buried in it. The
definition of inquisitive is curious and inquiring, which describes how the man is thinking about grass in
the poem.
F. The theme of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself #6 is: Life goes on even after death, and that everything
is connected. The poem conveys the theme because it represents that life grows from the dead, such as
the grass growing from the bodies of the dead people buried in the soil. Everything is connected
because the cycle of life goes on and on, the bodies of the dead provide nutrients for other plants to
grow, which feed other organisms until they die and the cycle repeats.
G. Works Cited
i. Henderson, Desiree. What Is the Grass?": The Roots of Walt Whitman's Cemetery Meditation.
N.p.: n.p., n.d. Whitman Archive. Web. 8 Dec. 2012.
ii. "Leaves of Grass By Walt Whitman Summary and Analysis: "Song of Myself" Sections 6-19,
Lines 99-388." Leaves of Grass: Summary and Analysis: "Song of Myself": Sections 6-19,
Lines 99-388. Cliff Notes, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
iii. "Section 6 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2012.
<http://www.shmoop.com/song-of-myself/section-6-summary.html>.
iv. "Song of Myself." Weekly Whitman Song of Myself 6 Comments. Weekly Whitman, 1 Oct.
2008. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
Note: Line numbers based off of the source:
"Song of Myself." Weekly Whitman Song of Myself 6 Comments. Weekly Whitman, 1 Oct. 2008. Web. 08
Dec. 2012.