I need a good summary of this poem "This Compost" by Walt Whitman​

Walt Whitman’s poem This Compost is glorifying nature for its

ability to take diseased and sickly materials, specifically human corpses, and

transform them into regeneration, beauty, and cleanliness. Though this poem was

written before the phrase was coined, Whitman is writing from the perspective

of deep ecology: he is recognizing the intrinsic value of nature rather than

its utility. Whitman is juxtaposing nature and humanity as he characterizes

nature as a place of growth and renewal, worthy of awe and respect, while

characterizing humans as “drunkards and gluttons of so many generations (460).”

He is depicting humanity as little more than a parasite, whose corpses poison

the earth with “foul liquid and meat (460).” Whitman is using the concept of death in a

profound way. By showing humankind as this short-term process in which people

live, then die and are buried, while nature is continual and self-renewing,

Whitman is asserting that nature is more significant and more valuable that

humanity. Nature is forever, human life is corrupt and fleeting. His last line personifies nature as a

forgiving deity saying, “It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts

such leavings from them at last (462).”

To express all of this, Whitman is using a speaker who is revering how nature can produce

life from corpses and diseased materials. In the section titled 1, the speaker is

inquiring how nature could turn death and disease into life. His diction

implies that he is comparing nature to a human body,

“O how can it be that the ground itself does not sicken?

How can you be alive you growths of spring?

How can you furnish health you blood of herbs, roots, orchards, grain (459).”

His tone of adoration reveals his respect and reverence for nature, while his use of questions shows that nature’s

renewal is too complex for man to understand. In section 2 the speaker is

glorifying specific processes that show nature’s renewal. For example, the

speaker witnesses “the resurrection of the wheat [appearing] with pale visage

out of its graves (460).” He continues in section 2 by appealing to the sense

of taste, “That all is clean forever and forever, that the cool drink from the

well tastes so good, that blackberries are so flavorous and juicy (461).” His

use of taste is providing evidence for his statement that the Earth “grows such

sweet things out of such corruptions (461).” The title of the poem is very

fitting as Whitman personifies nature as a compost, breaking down all things

diseased and building back up new life, sweet things, and cleanliness.

Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass.

“Compost”CH./Art: Excerpts p . 459-462. Pub. Random House 2001

Advertisements

Share this:

Print

Related

Paper Proposal: Walt Whitman's use of language in “Birds of Passage,” “A Song of the Rolling Earth” and “Song of the Redwood-Tree," in prescribing a moral/spiritual

what is the question you are trying to ask here

the food shivo was saving