Leaves of Grass

The adult speaker recalls his childhood. When he went out each day, he became part of all the objects he saw or heard in nature, such as flowers, grass, clover, and birdsong. In March, he observed lambs, foals, and calves, as well as fish and water plants. In April and May, field-sprouts, wintergrain sprouts, corn, and edible roots in the garden caught his attention, as well as apple trees, woodberries, and weeds. He also remembers the people he saw: an old drunkard, a schoolmistress, boys and girls on their way to school, a Black boy and girl, and many others in the city and the countryside. 

The speaker remembers his home life: his gentle mother serving up supper, his father strong and manly but also given to anger, and their shared affection. Even at home, however, the boy had doubts about whether things really were as they appeared. 

Next, he recalls men and women crowding the streets, as well as the streets themselves, the houses, the goods in shop windows, vehicles, ferries, and many other things, including a village seen from a distance, a schooner on the water, waves, clouds, sea crows, and the odor of saltmarsh. All these sights and sounds, the adult speaker states, became part of him as a child and remain with him to this day.