Excerpts from "Song of Myself": 1, 2, 6, 52

Question

Walt Whitman
1855

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 you are from old people, or from offspring taken,

It may be if I had known them I would have loved them, soon out of their mother’s 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.

What does the speaker conclude in his thoughts about grass?

Grass grows over graves of dead people, making it morbid.

Grass is just grass, and only gains the symbols we give it.

Grass grows over buried people, allowing them to gain new life after death.

Those who die are lucky because they do not have existential thoughts.

Answer 1

The speaker in Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" ultimately concludes that grass symbolizes the continuity of life, even in the face of death. The lines reflect a deep connection between life, death, and rebirth. The speaker observes that grass grows over the graves of those who have passed, suggesting that while bodies may be buried, life continues. The assertion that "the smallest sprout shows there is really no death" reinforces the idea that death is part of life's ongoing cycle, leading to new growth and existence rather than an end.

Therefore, the most accurate interpretation is: Grass grows over buried people, allowing them to gain new life after death. This understanding highlights the speaker's perspective that death is not a finality but rather a transition, with grass symbolizing life's resilience and continuity.