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In his poem, ³6. A child said, Ê
 
?´ Walt Whitman describes a

conversation with a curious child. This sixth section of ³Song of Myself´ seems to

suggest that Whitman is trying to explain what grass is but becoming increasingly buried

in his thoughts, while trying to answer the child¶s question, ³Ê
 
 ´ A

deeper reading suggests that the child is a part of the speaker, trying to understand life

and death. At several points in the work ³Song of Myself´ it appears Whitman tries to

convince the reader that life and death are equally important to the health of the world.

In the first lines of the poem, the speaker is talking to a child who asks "What is

the grass?´ at first, the speaker is taken aback by the child's question because he doesn't

"know what it is anymore than" the child. As the speaker tries to explain the grass, he

uses a series of metaphors in order to arrive at a meaning. He begins by saying the grass

must be a ³flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven,´ (101-102) he seems

to think that the grass is an extension of his inherent qualities expressed as a flag that

gives him hope.

The speaker moves onto musing that perhaps the grass is ³the handkerchief of the

Lord,´ as a ³remembrancer designedly dropt,´ with the Lord¶s name monogrammed at

the corner so we ³may see and remark, and say Whose,´ (103-106) here, Whitman

appears to compare the Lord to a lady dropping her handkerchief to get a suitor¶s

attention, in an attempt to persuade people into looking for him. This type of comparison

harks back to some of Ralph Waldo Emerson¶s ideas about finding the divine in Nature,

forever looking for the clues God leaves in nature. According to Whitman, the clues are

in nature, its up to us to follow them. In the next line, he considers that maybe the grass is
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³itself a child,´ the ³babe of the vegetation.´ (107), a common theme in much of

Whitman¶s ³Song of Myself´ is procreation; he didn¶t just see people or living things

participating, rather, the entire world. The speaker then goes on to say, ³I guess it is a

uniform hieroglyphic´, during Whitman¶s time, Egyptian hieroglyphics we¶re mysterious

in nature since nobody could decipher what they meant. Many people considered Egypt a

mysterious place full of ancient secrets, such is the grass to the speaker, it¶s always been

there in his mind, however he doesn¶t know what exactly it means, it¶s a mysterious part

of life that has a different meaning for different people. The speaker goes on to explain

the nature of the grass, ³sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones´, the grass does

not judge people, and it is simply there. The grass knows no race or class; everyone is of

equal standing with the grass.

Whitman connects the grass to humans even more, ³it seems to me the beautiful

uncut hair of graves,´ this line uses the ³ashes to ashes´ Christian philosophy that people

came from ashes and shall return to ashes when they die. Whitman plays on this by

comparing the grass to hair, as though the ³hair of graves´ is the hair of the dead still

growing. He continues,

³Tenderly will I use your curling grass,

It may be that 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´ (111-115)

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Whitman personifies the grass by explaining the grass is connected to everyone, the grass

is everyone. According to his perception of death, everybody who has died is

reincorporated into nature. The mothers who died before they were able to raise their

child are once again able to help their children. When their children are on the grass, they

are able to sit in their mother¶s ³laps´ he goes on to say the grass is ³very dark to be from

the white heads of old mothers / Darker than the colorless beards of old men,´ although

the grass is young, it is made from the deceased who came before us. Whitman then says,

³O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues, / And I perceive they do not come from

the roofs of mouths for nothing´ in these lines the speaker has gone from guessing and

supposing to perceiving, he is a little bit more certain of these statements since he has

perceived them himself. As he sees all these different people talking, he decides there

was a reason they came about, not just on a whim, but a calculated effort to bring forward

life.

The speaker wishes he could, ³translate the hints about the dead,´ he pretends to

be unable to decipher the hints, except he does so later in the poem. These lines seem to

be an attempt by the speaker to feel meek as though he isn¶t able to quantify the qualities

of the grass. Although the ³Leaves of Grass´ was originally published in 1855, Whitman

continued to amend and edit his work up until 1891, in the lines, ³What do you think has

become of the young and old men? / And what do you think has become of the women

and children?´ he seems to be referring to his participation in the American Civil War as

an army nurse. While in the army, Whitman saw several wounded soldiers who often

died from surgical complications after amputations.

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The speaker answers his questions with, ³they are alive and well somewhere, /

The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,´ (125-126) here, the speaker says that

death is not an opposing life, it is necessary for life to exist. In Yellowstone National

Park, wildfires are a common occurrence; these fires are often seen as a destructive force

that causes many trees to die. The truth, however, is the fires which cause the destruction

of so many trees allows saplings and a plethora of grasses, wildflowers, and bushes to

take hold. Out of the death of trees, new life springs forth and protects the area from

destruction for several years. The dead may have passed, but their physical selves will

live on in nature as the grass, the animals, and other people. Whitman continues the

stanza by saying, ³and if ever there was it led forward life, and it does not wait at the end

to arrest it, / And ceas¶d the moment life appear¶d´ (127-128). As Whitman points out

here, life doesn¶t end in death, it continues and blossoms into new life, the dead

contribute to life.

Whitman closes with, ³All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses / and to

die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier´ (129-130). Part of this stanza

could be contributed to the atrocities that Whitman witnessed during war as a nurse. The

wounded would often be better off dead; it would have been a luckier situation versus

waiting in a hospital for death to arrive while suffering through the seemingly endless

days and nights. Whitman also had a grasp on the eternal nature of life; the cycle of the

dead giving new life to vegetation, the vegetation giving life to the herbivores, humans

might eat the herbivores feeding the carnivores, and eventually the carnivores. Our

perception of death is something to try to avoid while attempting to hold onto life for as

long as possible.
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³Song of Myself´ is a piece that Whitman revised several times over the course of

his literary career. He evolved the piece to include his thoughts on subjects as they

changed. ³6. What is the grass?´ involves Whitman¶s understanding of life and death and

attempts to show the reader that death is not a bad thing, rather something that is

necessary for life to continue. Whitman¶s use of metaphors to entice the reader and lace

his point with subtlety creates a feeling of security when talking about a touchy subject

such as death.

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