The ideas an individual holds greatly effects how they interact with the world. A persons religion, creed, political leaning, philosophy, morality, or to put it another way the concepts one values most greatly changes the way they see the world. Do to this Walt Whitman’s poem attempts to have you see the world as he sees it. From the very beginning he wrote “[….] what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” which shows he want the ideas he talks about and how he describes himself to be the way the reader things and views them self. among the numerous, alarmingly frequent, almost like he was the type of person that keeps a signed picture of himself at his desk, self-aggrandizing statements he also stated “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”. This shows that he sees everything in the world from the grandness of space and time to the small mouse as important awe-inspiring.
I became a college student in 2012 in the welcoming arms of the City College of New York and due unforeseen changes transferred to Dutchess Community College and after graduating with an associates in Liberal Arts I was accepted and am attending this school since last semester. There was many situations and event that shaped my decisions to what college to chose from but what I would say was the biggest influence was a concept I learned in CCNY and had it cemented in DCC. This concept of being in awe with the world around me. Every new subject, person I met, location, ideas, concepts, thought processes i respected and happily tried to learn as much as i could. With varying degrees of success admitting but that excitement of learning something new and understanding a persons point of view kept me going and i would definitely agree with Whitman on that idea.
That is a really interesting perspective! When I read the part discussing ” leaf of grass is no less than the journey-wire of the stars…” I just understood it as confusion and things of that nature. But your understanding of it, implying that Whitman viewed the smallest and largest things as equals, assigning equal importance and awe to grass and stars, is a far better interpretation and makes much more sense in the greater context of the poem. Also, your journey to Baruch sounds inspiring, I hope you enjoy Baruch!