A Leaf Of Grass Is No

From Section 31 of "Song of Myself" in Leaves of Grass, part of a long catalogue in which Whitman finds the divine in every creature and object. The line expresses Whitman's democratic naturalism: the cosmos makes no hierarchy among its creations — a blade of grass is as intricate, as much a product of the universe's creative power, as the most distant star. This is also a self-referential moment: the poem whose title is Leaves of Grass is itself asserting the dignity of what appears humble.