Leaves of Grass

The speaker’s “lesson” is the wonder of life in all its manifold aspects. Many different types of people have learned the lesson, from employers and employees, to church people, atheists, and others. The speaker understands the “great laws” (Line 7)—he knows why things are beautiful. This is something he can explain through the medium of the poem. He describes the greatness of the earth, which was created and developed over a vast stretch of time. He dismisses the ostensible human life span of 70 years, since he regards all people as immortal.

The last part of the poem is a list of all the things that are “wonderful” (Line 20). Some of these are in the speaker’s own life and being: his birth and his growth to adulthood; the fact that his own soul can embrace others; the thoughts he can share so that others can think them too. Some are part of the wider universe, such as the orbit of the moon around the Earth, and the equilibrium they maintain with the sun and stars. He concludes by inviting or challenging his reader to find anything that is not wonderful, because in the speaker’s view there is nothing like that in existence.