Song of Myself

Grass is an important symbolic device for Whitman, both in “Song of Myself” and in Leaves of Grass as a whole. In deciding to forefront grass as a primary metaphorical device in his poems, Whitman may have had a fitting passage from the King James Bible in mind: “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass” (Isaiah 40:6).

For Whitman, grass is a versatile metaphor for his most important messages. His narrative framework for “Song of Myself”—the scene he sets for its composition—sees the poet at ease, “observing a spear of summer grass” (Section 1). The image of a dreamer at repose in nature was an important set piece in lyric and Romantic poetry. It is connected with the idea of the sacrality of nature and mundane things, particularly as tools to inspire poets. Whitman firmly believes that “a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars” (Section 31).

Grass also symbolizes radical acceptance and democracy. Where society arbitrarily draws lines and builds walls, grass recognizes no such boundaries. It simply exists where it will; it “grows wherever the land and the water is” (Section 17). For better or for worse, grass is unjudgmental, equal opportunity.

Finally, grass is evidence of the unbroken cycle of life and death. Because it grows from the corpses of the dead, Whitman argues, death cannot be permanent. Our atoms are never obliterated from existence; they are simply transformed, and this transformation is both metaphorical and biological. In Section 6, Whitman suggests that grass grows up from corpses, from “the faint red roofs of mouths.” The grass is like “so many uttering tongues,” and they “do not come […] for nothing.” The poet—and indeed, any person—can celebrate the lives of those who came before, and can rest easy in the knowledge that the same will be done for them after they die. Whitman poignantly ends his poem on this note: “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love” (Section 52).