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A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,
Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose?

Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.

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 mothers' 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.

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1. What is the poem’s tone? Which words reveal this tone? Is the poem ironic? - Adam Jamaica

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1. What is the poem’s tone? Which words reveal this tone? Is the poem ironic? - Adam Jamaica

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I think the poem is about life and death; or what are humans and why are they here on Earth. Do we have a reason here on Earth? What is our purpose in life? "A child said what is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he." These lines could represent death, the child asked what grass is and grass could be related to death and the writer didn't know how to answer him because he himself doesn't know what death is or what happens after it.

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Question #4: What figures of speech are used? How do they contribute to the tone and meaning of the poem? By: Danny Lotz

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Question #4: What figures of speech are used? How do they contribute to the tone and meaning of the poem? By: Danny Lotz

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The poem uses many figures of speech. For instance, as I read the poem I saw that the poem was not about grass but about humanity, life, death, the meaning of life. Examples of some figures of speech are " It seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves" and another being " I guess the grass itself is a child" and also " The smallest sprout shows there is really no death." These figures of speech make the poem philosophical and deepen its meaning.

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Question # 7: How important is the role of sound effects, such as rhyme and rhythm? How do they affect tone and meaning? By : Danny Lotz

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Question # 7: How important is the role of sound effects, such as rhyme and rhythm? How do they affect tone and meaning? By : Danny Lotz

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The poem does not rhyme, and its rhythm is formed by repetition. The poem uses the rhythm as an afterthought. It does not have much affect on the meaning of the poem but I believe it has a light effect on the tone. This is an example of such an effect. " I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation." I believe therefore that this effect on the tone is an afterthought.

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 3. What images does the poet use? How do the images relate to one another? Do these images form a unified pattern (a motif) throughout the poem? - Adam Jamaica

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 3. What images does the poet use? How do the images relate to one another? Do these images form a unified pattern (a motif) throughout the poem? - Adam Jamaica

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Whitman writes "the beautiful uncut hair of graves" indicating that he is talking about life and death; life being the uncut grass and death being the grave. The uncut grass can relate to death in many ways, one way could be that someone could have lived a long prosperous life and the grave could symbolize where you would go after death, everyone has the same grave even if you are poor, or rich, you will be either in a bottle or six feet under the ground.