Question

Rather than present an idealized version of nature, Whitman expresses an unusual insight about nature in his poem "This Compost." Which statement best summarizes that insight?

Answer 1

Hello. You forgot to enter the answer options. The options are:

Nature produces clean beauty from the rotting bodies of dead humans.

Nature can hurt us through the poison in the earth, air, and water.

Nature appears deceptively safe when actually it is quite dangerous.

Nature's cycles are just like a human's life cycle.

Answer:

Nature produces clean beauty from the rotting bodies of dead humans.

Explanation:

In "This Compost," Whitman shows an alternative view of nature that we rarely find in poems. He shows that nature, in addition to being beautiful, is a large deposit of cadavers, which is in stark contrast to the idealized view of nature that poets propose to us. In this poem, the poet decided to portray, death, rot and decay of what dies and is left on earth, which even before that, manages to produce life, beauty and fruit.