"As I Watched the Ploughman Ploughing" is a short poem about life and death, and how they are related to plowing, sowing, and harvesting. This work shows that life and death are like the seasons, and they all come at some point. Walt Whitman says that life is like plowing or sowing. He says that they come in their own season and that there is a specific time for it. He also says that harvesting is like death. This could be tied to Christianity in that Whitman could be saying that there is a divine being like God that is doing the plowing, sowing, and harvesting of people. He could be saying that God is in charge of when people are born and when people die. There is also a passage in the Bible that says things along the lines of "There is a time for everything, there is a season for everything under Heaven". It is along those lines, and that can also be tied to this poem. This poem is very similar and it says basically the same idea in a different way. Whitman could have read that passage, and he could have realized that he wanted to write about it or write something similar to it. He also could have just heard the passage as a child and not really remembered it when he grew up. He could have subconsciously remembered it, and used it as his inspiration, even thought he did not really know what he was talking about. Whitman could have gone to a church one day, heard that passage, and realized that he would be able to sell many copies of a book or poem if it was about that passage, because the passage was so optimistic and comforting when something bad happens. Whitman definitely had some roots in Christianity, and it shows in some of his works; it especially shows in this work. This poem is incredibly spiritual, and it can be inspirational to any number of people.
Whitman, Walt. ""As I Watch'd the Ploughman Ploughing"" Leaves of Grass. 1900. Print.
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