Leaves of Grass

“ From another point of view Leaves of Grass is avowedly the song of Sex and Amativeness, and even Animality—though meanings that do not usually go along with these words are behind all, and will duly emerge; and all are sought to be lifted into a different light and atmosphere. ”

“ Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle—and from this bush in the dooryard,
With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig with its flower I break. ”

“ When the leaves first start, as they nearly always do among grasslike vegetation in which these plants usually have to fight for a chance of life, the leaves grow straight up, so that they may get above the level of the surrounding grass. Once there, and the precious light an assured fact, they gradually flatten out their leaves to form a rosette, of course cutting off the light from the grass about them and killing it just as certainly as though it were pulled up by the roots. ”

“ When the young grass throws up its leaves into the air, from which it derives so much of its nourishment, it throws down its roots into the soil in quest of food of another kind. The leaves may be mown or cropped by animals, and carried off the field, but the roots remain in the soil, and, as they die, gradually fill its upper part with vegetable matter. ”

“ Tenderly will I use you curling grass, It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men, It may be if I had known them I would have loved them, It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mothers’ laps, And here you are the mothers’ laps. This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers, Darker than the colorless beards of old men, Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths. ”

“ The water affords the leaves ample support The grasses grow in blades for the same reason that the plants growing under water put out slender, thread-like leaves. The air-supply would seem abundant, but the grass-leaves are many, and low-growing plants are numerous. So they divide and sub-divide, that greater surface may be presented to the sunlight and the air. ”

“ To-day we shall easily distinguish the different kinds of grasses by their flowers, though we will also notice differences in their stems and leaves.
Let us pick a stem or culm of grass. We see that the greater part of it is hollow; but at intervals there are joints, and here the stem is solid. From each joint grows a leaf-sheath which is wrapped round the stem for a little distance above the joint. Out of each sheath grows a leaf. All grass leaves are long and narrow compared with those of most other plants, but some grass leaves are longer and narrower than others. ”

“ The appearance of the first green grass, the unfolding of the pale yellowish leaves on the trees, the budding of the earliest wildflowers and the cloudy pink and white of the orchards, were as successive signals from a new world. ”

“ If all the shoots have flowering stems in them, and are evidently of the current year, the grass is an annual; but if any shoots have leaves only, it is either biennial or perennial: to determine which is not always easy, but in perennial grasses there will generally be evident remains of older leaf-bases and shoots, and if there are distinct underground stolons or creeping rhizomes as well the point may be considered decided, and the grass is perennial, as is the case with most of our important species. ”

“ Use paper large enough to show in life size the grass heads and part of the leaves and stems. Before beginning the study, practice drawing grass leaves with one stroke of the brush, without first outlining their shapes. Then draw from the arrangement before you, working freely with the brush. In studying the leaves, notice where the greatest width is seen. Observe the size and direction of the stems, and draw them so that they express the upright growth and the grace of the plant. Grass stems are not like the stems of flowering plants or vines. ”

“ On dry hills a close tufted grass, with setaceous leaves, and in rich soils creeping and luxuriant with broad leaves. It is one of the few grasses that thrive in wet soils.
The chief points in the flat-leafed forms are the thin, dry leaves, rough on both sides and on the margins, with distinct raised ridges, and the base of the leaf narrowing suddenly into its insertion with the sheath, with no auricle, but with a long membranous ligule. The sheath not coloured, and the blade convolute. ”

“ This plant is widely distributed over Southern Europe, Northern Asia, and North America, in wet meadows and on low banks of streams. Of all the dwarf perennial grasses it is perhaps the best for isolation on the grass, where its fine dense and graceful tufts of long hair-like leaves and elegant panicles form a quite distinct-looking and ornamental object. ”

“ Because they form the food of a very large portion of the animal kingdom. They have therefore been abundantly provided. No spot of earth is allowed to remain idle long. When the foot of man ceases to tread down the path, grass immediately begins to appear; and by its universality and the hardihood of its nature, it clothes the earth as with a carpet.
Many grasses, whose leaves are so dry and withered that the plants appear dead, revive and renew their existence in the spring by pushing forth new leaves from the bosom of the former ones.—Withering's Botany. ”

“ There are various properties which give value to grasses. Some spread more than others, resist frost and drought better; yield a greater crop of leaves, and are therefore better for pasturage and hay. The juices of some are more nourishing and sweet than those of others. In general, 122however, different grasses are suited to different soils; and by improving soils, the quality of the grass is improved.
Geo. Does grass grow in all countries? ”

“ If it is grown in deep shade, the leaves become too long and spindling for beauty. When in moist ground, quite in the open, or in reflected shade, the fresh young leaves of a foot and under add great variety to the grass and are a perfect setting for table decorations of small flowers. ”

“ As we shall see later the degree of inrolling of many grass leaves varies with circumstances.
In most others the blades are either flat (Figs. 8-12) , or more or less conduplicate on the mid-rib. The latter case occurs, for example, in grasses with flattened shoots, especially at the lower part of the blade—e.g. Lolium perenne, Dactylis, Glyceria, and some species of Poa, and the cross-section of the leaf below, just before it enters the sheath, is V-shaped. In Glyceria the leaf-bases may show yellow or brownish triangles. ”

“ I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d'œuvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels. ”

“ Moreover the leaves are always of some elongated shape, and without 5leaf-stalks2, but pass below into a sheath, which runs some way down the stem and is nearly always perceptibly split 6 (Figs. 8-13) . Further, the stems themselves are usually terete, and distinctly hollow except at the swollen nodes, and only branch low down at the surface of the ground or below it3.
Fig. 1. A plant of Oat (Avena) , an example of a typical grass, showing tufted habit and loose paniculate inflorescence (reduced) . Figuier.
All our native grasses are herbaceous, and none of them attain very large dimensions. ”

“ O if one could but fly like a bird! O to escape, to sail forth as in a ship! To glide with thee O soul, o’er all, in all, as a ship o’er the waters; Gathering these hints, the preludes, the blue sky, the grass, the morning drops of dew, The lilac-scent, the bushes with dark green heart-shaped leaves, Wood-violets, the little delicate pale blossoms called innocence, Samples and sorts not for themselves alone, but for their atmosphere, To grace the bush I love—to sing with the birds, A warble for joy of returning in reminiscence. ”

“ O to bathe in the swimming-bath, or in a good place along shore,
To splash the water! to walk ankle-deep, or race naked along the shore.
O to realize space!
The plenteousness of all, that there are no bounds,
To emerge and be of the sky, of the sun and moon and flying clouds, as one with them.
O the joy of a manly self-hood! ”

“ No hair on surface of leaves or sheaths.
✲ Margins of leaves smooth and even. Blades without ridges, a keel and flanking lines, acute, base rounded. Ligule of lower leaves very short.
Poa pratensis, L. (Smooth-stalked Meadow-grass) . An early and valuable dry pasture-grass, but though deep-rooted, it yields thin hay: its chief value is for "bottom grass" and in lawn mixtures, &c. Leaves stiff and pointed. Extra-vaginal rooting underground stolons, and intra-vaginal branches. Shoots smooth. Keel slight: seven principal veins and smaller ones between. ”

“ But I am not the sea nor the red sun, I am not the wind with girlish laughter, Not the immense wind which strengthens, not the wind which lashes, Not the spirit that ever lashes its own body to terror and death, But I am that which unseen comes and sings, sings, sings, Which babbles in brooks and scoots in showers on the land, Which the birds know in the woods mornings and evenings, And the shore-sands know and the hissing wave, and that banner and pennant, Aloft there flapping and flapping. ”

“ For You, O Democracy Come, I will make the continent indissoluble, I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon, I will make divine magnetic lands, With the love of comrades, With the life-long love of comrades. I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies, I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other’s necks, By the love of comrades, By the manly love of comrades. ”

“ Tomb-leaves, body-leaves, growing up above me, above
death,
Perennial roots, tall leaves—O the winter shall not
freeze you, delicate leaves,
Every year shall you bloom again—Out from where
you retired, you shall emerge again;
O I do not know whether many, passing by, will discover
you, or inhale your faint odor—but I
believe a few will;
O slender leaves! O blossoms of my blood! I permit
you to tell, in your own way, of the heart that is
under you,
O burning and throbbing—surely all will one day be
accomplished ”

“ Over the tree-tops I float thee a song, Over the rising and sinking waves, over the myriad fields and the prairies wide, Over the dense-pack’d cities all and the teeming wharves and ways, I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee O death. 15 To the tally of my soul, Loud and strong kept up the gray-brown bird, With pure deliberate notes spreading filling the night. Loud in the pines and cedars dim, Clear in the freshness moist and the swamp-perfume, And I with my comrades there in the night. ”

“ The new society at last, proportionate to Nature, In man of you, more than your mountain peaks or stalwart trees imperial, In woman more, far more, than all your gold or vines, or even vital air. Fresh come, to a new world indeed, yet long prepared, I see the genius of the modern, child of the real and ideal, Clearing the ground for broad humanity, the true America, heir of the past so grand, To build a grander future. ”

“ Long and long has the grass been growing, Long and long has the rain been falling, Long has the globe been rolling round. ”

“ I see the vast alembic ever working, I see and know the flames that heat the world, The glow, the blush, the beating hearts of lovers, So blissful happy some, and some so silent, dark, and nigh to death; Love, that is all the earth to lovers—love, that mocks time and space, Love, that is day and night—love, that is sun and moon and stars, Love, that is crimson, sumptuous, sick with perfume, No other words but words of love, no other thought but love. ”

“ V-shaped leaf-sections, 20, 53, 73 Vagabond grasses, 29, 32, 34 Variability, 26 Vascular bundles, 21, 22, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 75, 76, 78, 80, 81 Vascular-bundle sheath, 68, 95, 122 Vegetative organs, 4 Veins, 18, 21, 22, 68, 76, 91 Venation, 21, 62, 67, 68 Vermin, 35 Vernal grass—Anthoxanthum, 83 Vernation—folding of the leaves in bud, 21 Versatile—hung loosely so as to turn freely, 94 Vessels, 67 Violet-brown sheath, 18 Viviparous grasses, 112, 114, 134 Vulpia Myurus—Festuca Myurus ”

“ Thou pulse—thou motive of the stars, suns, systems, That, circling, move in order, safe, harmonious, Athwart the shapeless vastnesses of space, How should I think, how breathe a single breath, how speak, if, out of myself, I could not launch, to those, superior universes? Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of God, At Nature and its wonders, Time and Space and Death, But that I, turning, call to thee O soul, thou actual Me, And lo, thou gently masterest the orbs, Thou matest Time, smilest content at Death, And fillest, swellest full the vastnesses of Space. ”

“ When law can stop the blades of grass from growin' as they grow,
And when the leaves in summer-time their colour dare not show,
Then will I change the colour, too, I wear in my caubeen
But 'till that day, please God, I'll stick to wearin' o' the Green. ”