Walt Whitmans Song of Myself Essay examples -- Song of Myself Essays

In one of the sections from the poem, â€Å"Song of Myself† Walt Whitman starts out with a child asking a question, â€Å"What is the grass?† Grass is a symbol of life. God, who created both the heavens and the earth also gave birth to life. When Whitman refers to grass as a â€Å"handkerchief of the Lord† (7), as a gift. When people look at the grass, they do not think of it as a creation but rather just a plant. Whitman refers to the grass as â€Å"a child, the produced babe of vegetation† (11, 12). Here, the grass is a metaphor for the birth of a child. In often cases, the birth of anything is celebrated because it symbolizes a new life, a new beginning. Whitman in a way compares grass as a human society. He mentions that grass is â€Å"a uniform hieroglyphic† (13) and they â€Å"alike† (14). In scientific terms, all humans are similar to each other and the only aspect that makes each person different is their personality and race. But even if people are racially different from each other physically, every person is the same internally as Whitman puts it: â€Å"Growing among black folks as among white, â€Å"Knuck, T...