Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tackahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them
the same, I receive them the same.
In this poem Walt Whitman discusses the question asked by a child, "What is the grass?". Like Whitman does in most of his works, he takes a simple question and gives a very un-simple answer. His answer to the literal question is a figurative answer. In this case, he describes the grass as the cycle of life, or a symbol for equality since the life cycle is the same for everybody; we are born, we live, and then we die.
These specific lines of the poem demonstrate how Whitman sees different groups of people and how the "grass" effects them. This poem was written at a time when people like African-Americans were looked down upon and segregated because of the color of their skin. These lines show how Whitman felt about the segregation of different types of people. To him, everybody was the same no matter the color of their skin, where they were from, or the job they had. The life cycle was the same for everybody. If talking in figurative forms, the grass grows everywhere no matter what because the life cycle is the same for everyone. This poem shows Whitman's view of American in a disguised form.
These specific lines of the poem demonstrate how Whitman sees different groups of people and how the "grass" effects them. This poem was written at a time when people like African-Americans were looked down upon and segregated because of the color of their skin. These lines show how Whitman felt about the segregation of different types of people. To him, everybody was the same no matter the color of their skin, where they were from, or the job they had. The life cycle was the same for everybody. If talking in figurative forms, the grass grows everywhere no matter what because the life cycle is the same for everyone. This poem shows Whitman's view of American in a disguised form.
Despite coming much earlier, it feels like Whitman might be an existentialist to some degree too, at least more in the Kierkegaardian sense -- for him there is certainly life after death, but not the way that theologists think about it (not heaven and all that) -- the grass continues, all life continues, even after the individual is gone. It's so Lion King circle-of-life-ish :)
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