English Literature

Unit Three – Poems

A CHILD SAID WHAT IS THE GRASS:
➢ Poet: Walt Whitman

➢ Structure: Type: free verse

Division: 32 lines ,13 stanzas
Speaker: first POV, the poet Whitman + 2nd POV.

➢ Tone: interactive and conversational (as if the writer is talking to the readers), friendly,
inspirational, thoughtful and positive.

➢ Mood: positive, calm and spiritual.

➢ Theme: the endless cycle of life and death and the unification and universality of
death.

➢ Transcendentalist Belief: the author went on a spiritual journey to find out the
meaning of grass.

➢ What is a spiritual journey?

▪ Whitman turned the question of “What is the grass” into a spiritual journey
▪ He connected himself with the grass to find the reality about the grass and what is it exactly.
▪ He came up with different assumptions about what is the grass.
▪ He speculated, guessed and corrected himself until at the end he reached the truth that grass
symbolizes life and death.
▪ Its reason is confusion and motive to search (“what is the grass”)
▪ It went from personal – spiritual – natural – universal – death (phases).

➢ What are the different answers of the grass that Whitman thought of or what are the
different possibilities of the meaning of the grass? Look at the chart (lines 3,4,6,7,8)

1
➢ Vocabulary

Word Meaning Word Meaning

Disposition Characteristic Woven Put together

Handkerchief Napkin Remembrancer Reminder

Scented Having odor or smell Dropt Drop

Bearing Carry or hold up Vegetation Plants and greenery

Hieroglyphic Symbols and signs Sprouting Grow or Spring

Kanuck Name of Race Tuckahoe Name of Race

Congressman Name of Race Cuff Name of Race

Tenderly Kindly or softly Transpire Become known

Faint Unclear Uttering Complete or total

Ceased Came to an end On/Outward Forward

2
L. Num. Quotation Annotation

Spiritual journey: to go through a spiritual

experience with elements of nature to find truth.

EG: He encountered a child who asked a

“A child said what is the question that seems simple and naive as children
1 grass? Fetching it to me ask question because they are curious.
with full hands”
Fetching to express curiosity.

Symbolism: Child symbolizes nature and purity

Fetching to express curiosity.

Rhetorical question: he was confused

“How could I answer
2 the child? I do not know EG: What I know about the grass is same as the
what it is more than he” child knows; just a green plant.

First Metaphor: beginning of spiritual journey.

“It must be the flag of Compared it to freedom (flag) and nature or

3 characteristics of a person (disposition)
my disposition”

Symbolism: freedom and hope

Anaphora: using or indicate that he changes his

mind.
“it’s the handkerchief of
4 the Lord”
Second Metaphor: handkerchief of the lord
(Gift from God + symbol: faith)

“Scented gift and

EG: God gifted humanity with grass as it is
5 remembrancer
perfectly designed and created
designedly dropt”

3
 Second Metaphor: it is a proof and a sign of
God’s existence.
“Bearing the owner’s
6 name in the corners, we EG: when you look at the grass you wonder
may see and remark and about its beauty and creation and then you ask
say Whose?" who did this?

Symbolism: faith.

Third Metaphor: the grass itself is the child.

“I guess the grass itself Symbolism: virginity, innocence and purity.

7 is a child, produced of
the vegetation” Personification: of the grass and nature.
(Nature or vegetation is compared to a mother)

Fourth Metaphor: the grass is a uniform.

8 “I guess it is a uniform Metaphor: it is compared to hieroglyphics that it

hieroglyphic” is a type of sign that cannot be decoded easily.

Symbolism: unity and equality.

EG: the grass grows the same everywhere, as the

“Sprouting in broad and grass unifies the whole world.
9 narrow zones”
Antonyms: to emphasize their growth.

“Growing among black EG: the grass grows the same among white and
10 folks and white folks” black people to show unity

“Kanuck, Tuckahoe, EG: list of different races (offensive words) to

Congressmen, Cuff. I show that grass doesn’t differentiate btw people.
11
give them and receive
the same” Catalog and Parallelism: to emphasize equality

4
 Last Metaphor: conclusion and final decision is
hair that grows out of graves.

“Now it seems the uncut Symbolism: death

12 hair of graves EG: began with life and ended with death to
show that life and death are connected and that
grass symbolizes the endless cycle of them.

EG: he decided to treat grass softly and to take

care of it.
“Tenderly will I use you
13
grass” Syntax: inversion (I will use you grass tenderly).
To emphasize how should people treat the grass.

Shift from first POV to second POV.

“From the breasts of Personification: of the grass as a character to

14 talk with.
young men”

EG: it comes out from the breasts of young men.

EG: maybe if I’ve known those people, I would

“If I’d known then I’d have loved and appreciated them.
15 loved them
Anaphora

Catalog: listing of people who died (old, infants)

“You’re from old
16 people, from offspring” Purpose: to show that death comes to anyone
and it’s not defined by age or time.

Metaphor: the grass is compared to the mothers’

laps when people die.

17 “You’re the mothers’

Symbolism: connection with nature; kindness.
laps”
(When people die, they become part of the nature
as if it is their mother)

5
 “Grass is very dark
Catalog: the grass is dark to be grown out from
18 from the white heads of
white people.
old mothers”

19 “Darker than the beards EG: but the grass is actually darker than the
of old men” colorless beards

“Dark to come from the EG: it is even darker form the red mouths.
21 red roofs of mouths” Purpose: to portray the theme of colorful life
and dark death.

Enjambment
Used to express the unsaid words of those who
are buried beneath the grass.
“I perceive after all
22
many uttering tongues” EG: when people die, they become one, they are
all the same without difference. It is difficult to
identify their race once died because they are
connected with nature.

“I perceive they don’t EG: Whitman wishes he could actually

23 come from the roofs of understand the signs dead people are trying to
mouths” convey.

EG: he is talking about a contrast between the

“The hints of men and
24 grass’s color and the dead bodies as a hint to
mother and offspring”
know the real meaning of death

“What do you think has Rhetorical Question What has become of them?
25
become of them” Have they ceased to exist?

“What do you think has Rhetorical Question

26 become of the women
and children?” Anaphora (And)

6
 EG: according to Whitman then the answer is
“They are alive and well “No! Nothing ever ceases to exist”. Everything
27
somewhere” continues a cycle. When the cycle comes to an
end, it takes a new form.

EG: belief of transcendentalism that we cannot

“Smallest sprout shows say the soul doesn’t exist just because we cannot
28
there is no death” see it just like sprout, we cannot see it until it
becomes a shoot. (metaphor)

EG: according to him, if there is death then the

“It led forward life and
29 grass wouldn’t lean forward to life and wouldn’t
doesn’t wait at the end”
wait until the end to be arrested by its chain.

EG: the grass would cease the moment life

30 “Ceased the moment appears. Whitman is saying that death is nothing
life appeared” but a part of the life cycle as it is a new
beginning.

“Goes onward and EG: nothing collapses as life grow inwardly and
31 outward, nothing outwardly and goes on.
collapses”

“To die is different from EG: according to him, death is a luckier event as
32 what any one supposed it makes a way for a new life
and luckier”
Wisdom of death: to be remembered.