{"id":6614,"date":"2013-09-24T18:18:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T18:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=6614"},"modified":"2026-01-15T19:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:28:13","slug":"grass-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=6614","title":{"rendered":"Grass…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n….. A friend linked me to a site that listed 30 books you should read before you’re 30<\/span><\/a>.
\nWell I’ve missed a few, however, I did read, Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, which was on the list.
\nOne of my favourite poems in the collection is Song of the Open Road. Here is
\nthe last stanza:<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAllons! the road is before us!<\/span>
\n\u2028It is safe\u2014I have tried it\u2014my own
\nfeet have tried it<\/span><\/div>\n
\nwell\u2014be not detain’d!<\/span><\/div>\n
\nLet the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the<\/span><\/div>\n
\nbook on the shelf unopen’d!<\/span><\/div>\n
\nLet the tools remain in the workshop! let the money<\/span><\/div>\n
\nremain unearn’d!<\/span><\/div>\n
\nLet the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!<\/span><\/div>\n
\nLet the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer<\/span><\/div>\n
\nplead in the court, and the judge expound the law.<\/span><\/div>\n
\nCamerado, I give you my hand!\u2028I give you my love more precious
\nthan money,\u2028I give you myself before preaching or law;\u2028 Will you give me
\nyourself? will you come travel with me?\u2028Shall we stick by each other as long as
\nwe live?<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe poem has a wonderful sense of adventure about
\nit. There is this idea of being out in nature, free from the institutions that
\nstructure society and just being one with the Earth.<\/div>\n
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Splendorous Shawl<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\nThe other lines I love that use the word “grass” are from William Wordsworth’s Intimations of Immortality
\n 
\n\u201cThough nothing can bring back the hour
\nOf splendor in the grass, of glory in
\nthe flower;
\nWe will grieve not, rather find
\nStrength in what remains
\nbehind;<\/p>\n

I actually quoted these lines the other day. I was at a trade show and I was wearing a shawl that I had designed based on the poem. A person at the booth opposite me came over to admire the shawl – I’m a sucker for praise. I explained the inspiration behind the design and quoted the excerpt from the poem. She answered, Walt Whitman. She was forgiven. Well both poets have the same initials. Maybe all you need for great poetry is words and wit (whit) \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

I love it when poetry is integrated into the everyday to-ings and fro-ings of life. Some parks in Toronto have signs reading “Walk on the Grass.” Now we just have to add “And read a poem or two!!”<\/p>\n

Have a wonderful day!!\n<\/div>\n

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Well I’ve missed a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knitting","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6616,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6614\/revisions\/6616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}