A child said, what is grass

By King Meera -

  • transcendentalism
  • dramatic start
What is grass
  • child is innocent, ignorant, unaware, excited
  • Speaker, an adult, grown-up, "wise" one, also unaware, unable to answer - "I do not know what it is any more than he"
I am like grass
  • Reasons why child approached him: 
  1. symbols - handkerchief of the lord
  2. disposition, person woven out of hopeful dreams
  • grass is a representation of his own hopes
  • designedly (intentionally) dropped (to convey a message)
Divine spirit
  • handkerchief is a reminder of possession - bears owner's name, just as the grass bears the name of God
  • Grass represents divinity, reminds us of divine presence
  • grass is a baby/child/product of a habitat
Universal language
  • same for all - broad zones (lawns)(broad-minded), narrow zones (pathways)(narrow-minded), black, white, Indian, rich, poor - universal, hieroglyphic - grass is part of the universal language of god
Only in America:
  • Kanucks are French Canadians
  • Tuckahoe is a plant cooked by the people of Virginia, Carolina
  • Cuff - American man (born on Friday)
  • reinforces notion of American dream
Back to notes:
  • now it seems - with respect to all that he knows
  • grass as chest hair - bravery (young men who died during Civil War - Whitman would have loved them for the righteous men they were), love (motherly affection)
  • dark green suggests that it was too dark to have grown out of the graves of old mothers and old men and the people who spoke rather than fought and the people of less vigor*
  • *people of less vigor - regardless, their words couldn't have meant nothing
  • *vigor => faint red, not robust red
  • also, grass is a flag of disposition

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