Ang Whitman What Is The Grass Analysis

When the child asks, “what is the grass?” he is disregarding its physical attributes, and focuses on something a little less tangible. Although the child grasps the grass in his hand, he is more concerned with the metaphysical existence of grass. The child may be able to feel the dew on the soft blades, see the green or brown coloring, and smell its distinct herbaceous aroma, but none of these qualities answer his question. Curiosity of the unknown is a feeling that people of all ages have. Although Whitman is older then the child, he is none the wiser to the universe's secrets, stating, “How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.” Even the question of something as simple as grass is unanswerable to him.
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He sees the grass as souls, each blade representing a friend that existed for him at some time in the past. He displays his yearn to speak to them when he says, “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.” The people in the grass seem to be very real to Whitman. The feeling of sadness leaves when he says, “They are alive and well somewhere/ The smallest sprout shows there is really no death.” Whitman accepts that he will not hear the hints of the people who make up the grass today, but they are just as alive as him even though they are grass.
“All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses/ And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier,” feels like a sigh of relief at the end of a wild ride. Whitman feels confident that death is only a renewal of life, as shown by the sprouts of grass that come up from the souls of past people. He has found the meaning of life through a simple question posed by a child, “what is grass? Whitman has shown us that grass is hope for the living,