Whitman Assignment Revised

" 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."

Cemeteries have historically been a unique place where the living meet the dead. Before bodies of the deceased are laid to "rest", there are a multitude of customs and traditions that some societies abide by to reflect their belief structures. In Whitman's time, there was a movement towards rural cemeteries that was heavily influenced by early American Romantic ideas of art and nature. Even in the above passage, you can see there are connections between romantic ideas of life and death that are reflected in the way landscapes and gardens are perceived.

When thinking about a cemetery as a romantic space, reflect on this passage from Walt Whitman's "Blades of Grass" (1855). What do you think Whitman is trying to say about life, death, existence in the universe? What meaning can you infer from this portion being set in a rural (or garden) cemetery? How does this passage relate to other themes in the poem?

For the first phase of your assignment, write a reflective, free versed journal entry to work out some thoughts about this passage and its meaning. This journal entry shall not be more than 1 page and there need not be any particular argumentative structure unless you feel compelled. This is to help you construct some thoughts about the passage in relation to the rest of the text so that you can then formulate an argumentative statement about the passage.

Then compose a 3-5 page short formal essay with an argumentative statement addressing some of the questions posed above, supported by textural evidence from the poem to support your claims. You may use outside sources from academically reliable resources if you wish but it is merely optional. Use the connections you have made (or have started to make) in your journal entry about life, death, bodies, landscape, american romanticism, etc.

Whitman Assignment

" 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."

By reflecting on this passage from Walt Whitman's "Blades of Grass" (1855), what do you think Whitman is trying to say about life, death, existence in the universe? What meaning can you infer from this portion being set in a cemetery? How does this passage relate to other themes in the poem? Write a reflective, free versed journal entry to work out some thoughts about this passage and its meaning. This journal entry shall not be more than 1 page and there need not be any particular argumentative structure unless you feel compelled. This is to help you construct some thoughts about the passage in relation to the rest of the text so that you can then formulate an argumentative statement about the passage. Then compose a 3-5 page short formal essay with an argumentative statement addressing some of the questions posed above, supported by textural evidence from the poem to support your claims. You may use outside sources from academically reliable resources if you wish but it is merely optional.

Where the dead and the living meet

Themes of mortality and landscape reoccur throughout Whitman's "Blades of Grass". The relationship between the living existence and spiritual existence can be spatially represented through landscape, nature, architecture and the human/spiritual agency within that space.

What comes to mind when considering the dead (spiritual) and the living (mortal) in relation to landscape is a cemetery. The imagery of vegetation, stone, architecture, transcendent spirituality, bodily presence all coexist to shed insight on the interconnectedness of the different stages of life. The living come to visit the dead, the dead lay rotting away, freshly cold bodies are lowered into the earth, plants, grass and flowers sprout from the earth that engulfs the bodies, all of this is very interesting.

Using a the cemetery as a cultural object in which to place some thematic motifs in Whitman's "Blades of Grass:, I would ask that one examine the agency of the life cycle in this poem. What is the relationship between spiritual transcendence and physical deterioration,land scape and life, ritual and space. And in light of all these questions, what about one's findings deepens the understanding of this work as a classically American work?