The grave—the grave. What foolish man calls it a dreadful
place? It is a kind friend, whose arms shall compass us round
about, and while we lay our heads upon its bosom, no care, temp-
tation, nor corroding passion shall have the power to disturb us.
Then the weary spirit shall no more be weary, the aching head
and aching heart will be strangers to pain, and the soul that has
fretted and sorrowed away its little life on earth will sorrow not
any more.In sentiments resembling the outpourings of the consolation literature
written by clergymen and their wives, the reader is advised, when troubled
by vexation and sorrow, to consider the comfort that death will bring. The
suggestion that death can solve human woes was a commonplace in this
sort of writing, so it is dif¤cult to judge the seriousness of Whitman’s
words or to know what state of mind produced them. The author, who
affected a number of literary poses, may have been affecting the fashion-
able pose of a world-weary young man who is preoccupied with death.
However, the tale does hint at the young Whitman’s moments of self-
doubt. His praise of death (coupled with the implied denial that he is
terri¤ed by it) gives way to a death wish that sometimes surfaces in his
mature poems:
There have of late frequently come to me times when I do not
dread the grave—when I could lie down, and pass my immortal
part through the valley and shadow, as composedly as I quaff
water after a tiresome walk. For what is there of terror in taking
our rest? What is there here below to draw us with such fond-
ness? Life is the running of a race—most weary race, some-
times. Shall we fear the goal, merely because it is shrouded in
a cloud?^20The postmortal “goal” alludes to the preceding rhetorical question and
foreshadows the theme, richly developed in Leaves of Grass, that life and
immortality are integral parts of the same evolutionary cycle.
The sentimental verse “The Love That Is Hereafter” (1840) foreshad-
ows those 1860 poems in which the persona expresses the hope that his
failure to meet and attract mortal soul mates may be remedied in the
next life:
Introduction / 15