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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 dropped,
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 and from women, and
from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps,
And here you are the mother's 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?
What do you think has become of the women and
children?

They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprouts show 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 ceased the moment life appeared.

All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and
luckier.

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

# data[].attributes.subject
What is the theme (the central idea) of this poem? Can you state it in a single sentence? Elaborate on your idea

# data[].attributes.body
The theme of this poem is life and death. He starts off talking about the innocence of a boy's childhood, but then it starts to talk about death and graves. This shows life and death because as you age and grow you begin to learn about death.

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The poem's tone is questionable tone because throughout the entire poem it was a question about grass. The words that reveal the tone of the poem were "A child said, What is the grass?" and the narrator says I guess a lot. Also, the poem is not ironic because it is not contradicting what it is trying to say.

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Are there any symbols and what do they mean?

# data[].attributes.subject
Are there any symbols and what do they mean?

# data[].attributes.body
The main symbol in the poem is " A child said what is grass" is grass and how it represents life and death. The way you can see that it represents life and death is from the quote in stanza 3 saying "Or I guess the grass itself is a child... the produced babe of vegetation". This is symbolizing that the grass is a human itself and how when it is still alive, it is like there is life in it.

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

# data[].attributes.subject
What figures of speech are used? How do they contribute to the tone and meaning of the poem?

# data[].attributes.body
Metaphor contributes to the poem in stanza 6 where it says, "And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves". The grass is getting compared to a gravesite that no one has been buried at. Usually, the grass from an occupied gravesite is not as fresh and alive as an unoccupied gravesite.