Leaves of Grass

Whitman likely drew on memories of his own childhood on Long Island, New York, for this poem. Notable in the first few lines is the intensity of his empathic experience of nature: Whatever he looks upon, “that object he became” (Line 2). Variations of the phrase “became part of him” repeat four times in Lines 3-6, emphasizing the child absorbing nature in a way that mirrors The Expansive Self that is a feature of many of Whitman’s poems, such as “Song of Myself.” 

In the last two lines, the speaker reveals that his early experiences inform who he is as an adult: “These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes and will always go forth every day” (Line 31). He also claims that his power has the power to transfer his experiences to his reader: The sights and sounds described “become of him or her that peruses them now” (Line 32). Poetic communication is strong enough to embed in the awareness of the reader—an elevation of the poet’s power that echoes the depiction of the poet as a mystical force in “Song of the Answerer.” Whitman desires to establish an intimate, unifying relationship with his readers; he wants them to feel everything that he has felt.

The poem’s child also experiences another thematic concern of many of Whitman’s poems: that the surface appearance of things is not the full truth. The child senses the possibility of a deeper reality, though he cannot yet definitively state that it exists but merely poses the question: “Whether that which appears so is so . . . . Or is it all flashes and specks?” (Line 21). He repeats the phrase in the next line, considering if the people he sees on the street “are not flashes and specks, what are they?" (Line 22). This line of questing is a marked feature of Whitman’s poetic persona; his speaker often seeks to express his perception of the absolute, eternal essence of all things. Many of his poems, such as “To Think on Time” and “Who Learns My Lesson Complete?” from the 1855 edition, aver that reality is considerably more permanent, real, and beautiful than the “flashes and specks” we see (Line 22).