“What is the grass?” John Donne answers.

As we’ve been reading and studying the versions of “Song of Myself,” I keep coming back to John Donne’s famous poem “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” especially in the “What is the grass?” sections of Whitman’s poems (page 31 in the first version and page 192 in the deathbed version). The stanzas that introduce this question are almost exactly the same in both versions of the poem. However, what I find very interesting is that in the deathbed version, the question is italicized. I interpret this change as added emphasis to the question in the deathbed version. It is as if Whitman wants us to see that he still cannot adequately answer the question, but that even at the end of his life, he is searching for an answer, perhaps more intensely with the passage of time. 

I reference John Donne’s poem because it speaks some kind of answer to me in response to Whitman’s question. Here’s Donne’s poem if you’ve never read it or need a refresher:

“No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thine own

Or of thine friend’s were.

Each man’s death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.“

In “Song of Myself,” Whitman points out that it is a child who asks the question “What is the grass?” Like the child, Whitman also contemplates the answer to this question, and in his poem, he invites all to consider the question and desire to find an answer because all people are ultimately connected. This idea of connection is presented by Donne in his poem – an overarching sense of humanity. I really like the grass imagery for this idea. We discussed a bit in class that grass is widespread and uniform, many blades together covering a large expanse of area. One blade of grass does not stand out from the rest. Each is vital in contributing to the whole. 

What do you make of John Donne’s poem in relation to Whitman? Do you think they connect? Does Donne’s poem maybe speak to you in other ways?