Leaves of Grass #5

"I am the hounded slave...I wince at the bite of the dogs,
Hell and despair are upon me...crack and again crack on marksmen.
I clutch the rails of the fence...my gore dribs thinned with the ooze of my skin,
I fall on the weeds and stones,
The riders spur their unwilling horses and haul close,
They taunt my dizzy ears...they beat me violently over the head with their whip-stocks."

For many of the poems, Whitman has been the observer. However in this section, he has become the things that he is observing. He becomes the wife, then the man, and finally the slave. By him becoming them, he understands who they are and what they have to go through. This gain of understanding is what Whitman has been looking for and in a sense is his epiphany because he now has the awareness he's been looking for.

The passage above begins with him finally realizing the place of a slave, which is the harder for him to understand because it's the farthest to what he was. He has understand the position so much that he can feel the pain that a slave feels. "My core dribs thinned with the ooze of my skin" is an example of his realization. After, he says, "I do not ask the wounded person how he feels... I myself become the wounded person. In this area, he syntactically favors describing himself, follow by an ellipsis, and then something occurring to him. This has an interesting effect because it parallels the slave or his characteristics with what is occurring with it, but at the same time dividing them. This paradox expresses the complexity of the social issues at the time and the tough life of a slave.

Leaves of Grass #4

"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chief-d'ouvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depressed head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels,
And I could come every afternoon of my life to look at the farmer's girl boiling her iron tea-keddle and baking shortcake."

In this segment of Whitman's poetry begins a trend of repetitive syntax. In the first sentence, Whitman expresses his opinion on his title. Because he says "no less" he is expressing the magnitude of something so simple. A leaf of grass is but one piece in an entire field. No one notices it, except for Whitman who notices all the little things around him. He wants the reader to understand what he feels, so he compares it to stars orbiting around in the solar system. The line is juxtaposition between the simplicity and minute size of the grass verses the complexity and large size of the star. Also, the mentality that grass is at people's feet and diminishes its view, while stars are above the heads and gives that larger than life effect plays a role as well.
Then Whitman goes into the repetitive syntax. In this segment, he brings up the motif of nature and the theme of things being more than they appear. Whitman gives aspects of nature, human qualities. What I find so interesting is that nature has human qualities, but Whitman enjoys nature far greater than humans themselves and their actions. This give nature equality to humans, but at the same time superiority to them. The repetitiveness expresses the tone of the speaker has it keeps encountering this idea more and more and it makes the reader feel overwhelmed by the continuous usage.
Then after all that with nature, Whitman says, "And I could come every afternoon of my life to look at the farmer's girl boiling her iron tea-keddle and baking shortcake." Whitman discusses how much better nature is compared to humans and their artifical machinary, yet he says how much he loves seeing a girl using the machinary. This ironic statement either says that Whitman is a hypocret and cares more about what goes on in his pants than in his head or he wants to show that everyone including him is flawed and this increases the connection between him and the reader rather than him saying how the reader is a terrible person.

Leaves of Grass #3

Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?
I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.

I pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-washed babe...
and am not contained between my hat and boots,
And peruse manifold objects, no two alike, and every one good,
The earth good, and the stars good, and their adjuncts all good.

I am not an earth nor an adjunct of an earth,
I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and
fathomless as myself;
They do not know how immortal, but I know.


Before the passage, Whitman repeatably brings up the motif of grass and dark. The author appears to be referencing the life of a slave. He is watching their lives unfold and the terror they had to go through. The reference to the grass could refer to the work slaves do on the field as well as a symbol for life, in which it is dying as he says, "This grass is very dark."

Whitman is doing several things here as he is doing throughout his poems. He is exploring his own self, his individuality and his personality. He is examining democracy and the American nation with its achievements and potential. And also he is expressing his thoughts on aspects of life like birth, and death.

Whitman deals with death for most of the poems as a fact of life. Death in life is a fact, but life in death is a truth for Whitman. However in this case, it is giving it more meaning. He is considering death as an escape from the terrors of life. He sees the slaves dying in front of him and he wants to try and understand what they are going through and believes that in their case, although life is beautiful and offers so much, it would be better to die. Or possibly even not even be born, so that they did not have to suffer through what they had to which is why he asks, :has any one supposed it lucky to be born?" When he asks the question, he is directing it towards the slaves and wondering what they feel on life verses death.

In the passage, Whitman says, "I'm not contained between my hat and boots. The earth good, and the stars good, and their adjuncts all good." He is comparing his life to that of a slave and saying everything has been good to him. The repetition of good appears as an allusion to the bible as the adjective good was used a lot as well in that structure so Whitman could possibly be referring to the Book of Genesis and saying how his life is natural and as it is meant to be, while the slave's lives are not.