He invites his soul to come look at the grass with him. Section 1: Whitman personifies a part of his person into someone that he could invite on a nice summer outing.Just remember, there's not a strict separation between all of these personas, but it is important to recognize when the speaker is talking to one or another of these personas, and how they contribute to his idea of an all-encompassing personality. We have the guy named 'Walt Whitman,' but Walt also has a deeper self he calls 'Me Myself' or just 'Myself.' Oh, and then there's his soul, which may or may not be the same thing as 'Myself.' Confused yet? It's OK. It's not easy to keep track of exactly who is talking in the poem. Section 52: Whitman gives or 'bequeaths' himself to 'the grass I love.' This line returns to the image of the grass as graves.Section 49: He addresses the grass of graves through apostrophe, 'O grass of graves.'.Section 31: He revisits the phrase 'leaf of grass' and says that the grass is the 'journeywork of the stars.' 'Journeywork' is work done by an experienced craftsman, so the stars are being compared implicitly to craftsmen.The idea of dead life supporting new life is crucial.

Most importantly, the speaker uses a metaphor comparing the grass to 'the beautiful uncut hair of graves.' The earth is a grave because the soil is made up partly of decomposed bodies. The grass is also metaphorically a child of other plants and the 'handkerchief' of God, left as a token of God's presence. He describes grass as a symbol of his 'hopeful' disposition. Section 6: This is the most important section concerning grass in the poem.Is the entire poem about a single blade of grass?

The word 'spear' is suggestive of a weapon.

Section 1: The speaker states his intention to look at a 'spear' of summer grass.

Title: The title of the book in which 'Song of Myself' appears, Leaves of Grass, is a pun on the meaning of 'leaves' as the green things on plants, and also as the pages of a book.

According to the speaker, the bodies of countless dead people lie under the grass we walk on, but they also live on and speak through this grass. Grass is an image of hope, growth, and death. You could think of the speaker narrating the entire poem while sitting in the grass with his soul. It was the first poem in that book, and grass is one of its central images. 'Song of Myself' did not originally have a title, but people probably thought it was titled Leaves of Grass, which is the name of the book in which it was published. Check out our 'How to Read a Poem' section for a glossary of terms.

Before you travel any further, please know that there may be some thorny academic terminology ahead. Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay.

Song of myself poem