Think About Death!

51

The past and present wilt--I have fill'd them, emptied them,
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.


Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)


Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)


I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.


Who has done his day's work? who will soonest be through with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me?


Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?

52

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

The last scud of day holds back for me,

It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds,

It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.

I depart as air, I shake my white locks as the runaway sun,

I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,

If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,

But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,

And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,

Missing me one place search another,

I stop somewhere waiting for you.

This is an incredibly emotional passage from Whitman's "Song of Myself." It reflects the real heart of Whitman's character, the poet, who represents all Americans, and the purpose of life. The passage embodies themes of mortality versus immortality and individuality versus the whole. Through use of narration, metaphor, and impeccable tone, Whitman grabs his audience in an intense moment of life or death.

At the beginning of the passage, the poet addresses God while lying on his deathbed, and asks what the meaning of life is: "Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?" (77). The poet recognizes he will only be alive "a minute longer" (77); he is faced with his mortality and is prepared for the answers God may give him. The poet remains curious to whether or not God will give him the answers, and then addresses the reader asking what he/she will do before or after he dies: "Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?" (77). Poem 52 further focuses on the poet on his deathbed; but, instead of describing his peaceful lingering, the poet is now described as a loiterer, which suggests that he must embrace death and fall to the hands of the Lord. Soon enough, the poet dies: "I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun, I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags." The poet ends by saying that even after his death he will live on in the grass "under your boot-soles" (77). 

The reflections of mortality are very clear within the poem: the character is faced with death. However, even though this body is about to die, Whitman emphasizes that the poet's soul will be immortal. This is shown by the lines Whitman writes after the figure dies. The lines aren't despairing or focused on a conclusion, rather they share words for the future: "You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, but I shall be good health to you nevertheless, and filter and fibre your blood." This suggests that the soul will forever nurture those who are still alive. Robert Sickels explains that "the poem cumulatively chronicles humanity's inextricable place in the regenerative natural world" (Sickels), which explains that we are regenerated in death; our energy is stricken from our bodies but humanity's souls will live on in the natural world. This theme of people as immortal beings is heavily stressed throughout the entirety of Leaves of Grass.

The theme of individuality versus the whole is also present within this passage. It is first apparent when the poet writes, "I am large, I contain multitudes" (77). This suggests the wholeness of a person, but also the many parts inside them. This theme relates to the overall theme and message of the book that there is a whole, the grass/America, and its parts, the leaves/America's inhabitants. The passage further relates to the "leaves of grass" message since the poet compares himself to the grass: "I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love" (77).  This presents the idea to the reader that, in death, the souls of our beings still grow among America's living people. The dead figure does not become a separated part from the whole in death, but rather grows as a part of a new whole as a leaf in the grass.

Work Cited

Whitman, Walt, Michael Moon, Edward Sculley Bradley, and Harold William Blodgett.Leaves of Grass and Other Writings: Authoritative Texts : Other Poetry and Prose : Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2002. 77. Print.
Sickels, Robert C. "Whitman's Song of Myself." MLA International Bibliography. Web. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=2933ef9e-ddc6-4ff6-9642-34c201e73061%40sessionmgr13&vid=1&hid=7&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=mzh&AN=2000060523>.

Pictures:

http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/h/ho/hotblack/880580_field_of_grass.jpg

http://swankybase.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Timberland-6-Inch-Zip-Earthkeepers-Boot-On-Grass.jpg