Leaves of Grass part 2

The latest news...discoveries, inventions, societies...authors old and new, My dinner, dress, associates, looks, buisness, compliments, dues, The real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I love, The sickness of one of my folks-or myself...or ill doing...or loss or lack of money...or depressions or exaltations, They come to me days and nights and go from me again, but they are not me myself.
The meaning of this passage is that all the things that make up a life are not the things that make up a persons spirit. The author creates this meaning through a series of lists. Because the words are listed none of them stand out on their own. Showing how not any one part of a life is the most significant. In reading the lists the reader gets the feelings of going through the motions. This is the same way the speaker feels about life.

Leaves of grass part 1

" I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease....observing a spear of
summer grass."

The speaker here is a person consulting nature on his or her being. Nature throughout the poem is personified as is the persons soul. The author gives the soul human quality when he "invites" the soul. The repetition of the word "belong" connects how the speaker and nature are connected through atoms. Atoms is a word often used in scientific formats connecting the poem to nature. Nature is again brought up in the in the mention of "summer grass" the term spear is harsh and violent when describing the grass . Another definition of spear is a weapon. Through this double meaning the author is connecting now nature and therefore also the man in violence. While nature and the man in the rest of the poem are flowing and more gentle the author is saying sometimes nature and humans can become violent.