Question

excerpt of \song of myself\
by walt whitman

a child said what is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
how could i answer the child? i do not know what it is any more than he.

i guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

or i guess it is the handkerchief of the lord,
a scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,
bearing the owners name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say whose?

what purpose does the rhetorical question serve in the highlighted selection in the passage?

to encourage the reader to think about how they would answer the question
to show a conversation between the speaker and the child
to introduce facts about the topic at hand that whitman will introduce

Explanation:

Analyze the highlighted rhetorical question

The highlighted text is: "How could I answer the child?" This is a rhetorical question asked by the speaker after a child asks, "What is the grass?"

Evaluate the purpose of the question

The speaker immediately follows the question with: "I do not know what it is any more than he." This demonstrates that the speaker is reflecting on the difficulty of defining something as simple yet profound as grass. The question is not meant to elicit a literal answer from the reader, nor does it represent an active dialogue or introduce concrete facts. Instead, it prompts the reader to contemplate the complexity of the child's simple question and how one might attempt to answer it.

Match with the given options

• Option 1: "to encourage the reader to think about how they would answer the question" directly aligns with this reflective purpose.
• Option 2: "to show a conversation..." is incorrect because the rhetorical question is the speaker's internal monologue, not an active dialogue.
• Option 3: "to introduce facts..." is incorrect because the poem moves into metaphorical guesses rather than objective facts.

Answer:

• (A) to encourage the reader to think about how they would answer the question (Correct answer)
• (B) to show a conversation between the speaker and the child
• (C) to introduce facts about the topic at hand that Whitman will introduce