Why does Whitman use a blade of grass to symbolize his poems?
Among many other reasons, Whitman considered each of his poems to be a separate leaf or blade of grass • because they were divine (though common) • because they were symbolic of life and cycles of birth and death (ever renewed) and • because they were significant both individually and in the mass. 2. What are some characteristics of Whitman’s use of free verse? • Lack of metrical regularity and conventional rhyme • Use of repeated images, symbols, phrases, and grammatical units as substitutes for regular rhythm and rhyme • Use of enumerations and catalogs. • Use of anaphora (initial repetition) in lines • Use of varying line lengths with varying numbers of syllables per line. Critic Gay Wilson Allen identified the Whitman “envelope”: identified a short beginning line, long middle lines, and a short ending line. • Idiosyncratic spelling and punctuation. 3. What kinds of vocabulary does Whitman use? Whitman’s vocabulary borrows from these disciplines: • anatomy • astronomy • carpentry an
