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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 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.

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 chil- dren?

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?

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

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The poem’s tone is silent, peaceful, innocent, and lovely. This tone is contributed and revealed by the words that represent the symbols of the poems like “baby” and “grass”. At the beginning of the poem, the word “grass” reminds the readers of the green small plants, so the picture that the readers imagine from reading the poem might be about the beauty of nature or the smallness of grass, and this word gives no definition or connotation about disaster to make an non catastrophic mood. Later, in the poem, the word “baby” gives the readers an imagery of a small infant, which also has a tone of innocence. After combining these symbols together, line 8, “Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation”, gives an overall tone for the poem. Even with the symbol of “old people”, the tone still stays the same with the first two symbols, so the author has an intention of not making this poem ironic.

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 2. What heavily connotative words are used? What words have unusual or special meanings? Are any words or phrases repeated? If so, why? Which words do you need to look up?

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 2. What heavily connotative words are used? What words have unusual or special meanings? Are any words or phrases repeated? If so, why? Which words do you need to look up?

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There are multiple heavily connotative words used in this poem, such as the phrase “babe of the vegetation” in line 8. It symbolizes the new life that grass represents every time it is growing. Grass is considered the babies of the plant world and is constantly in a cycle of rebirth and growth, no matter what goes on, which can be applied to humans throughout history. Another strongly connotative phrase that Whitman uses is “beautiful uncut hair of graves.” Again, these choices of words strongly correlate with the cycle of life & death. The graves of the dead provide nutrition for the grass to grow, therefore, the dead provides life, and the cycle repeats itself.

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 4. What figures of speech are used? How do they contribute to the tone and meaning of the poem?  

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 4. What figures of speech are used? How do they contribute to the tone and meaning of the poem?  

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The last stanzas of the poem’s main focus is to compare the symbols that were revealed in the previous ones. Therefore, metaphor becomes the most important and common figure of speech in the poem. The main function of this figure of speech is to give a more positive and childish tone for the poem by comparing the grasses with old people. An example of this function is “The grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers”, and this line tells the readers about how a young life is different from an old one and relies on the wisdom of old people, which is one of the poem’s main motifs.

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 6. What is the theme (the central idea) of this poem? Can you state it in a single sentence? Elaborate on your idea.

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 6. What is the theme (the central idea) of this poem? Can you state it in a single sentence? Elaborate on your idea.

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One of the central ideas of this poem is that we are all equal, in life and death. Whitman tries to tell the child that we are born the same way and die the same way. In lines 12-14, Whitman states “Growing among black folks as among white, Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.” He tries to say that no matter what kind of folks we are, we all go towards the same fate, which is eventually, into our graves. He tries to compare people to blades of grass, no matter where the grass is it will always be “a uniform hieroglyphic.”