Death

Death never looked so good in Whitman's elegy. It's not personified, like as a Grim Reaper, but rather as a "Dark mother always gliding near with soft feet." Isn't that sweet? We just can't get over that awesome metaphor. By the end, the speaker learns to see death as a natural and even beautiful force that unifies us all. In fact, it's so great that the speaker and the bird can't help but compose a song just for death—a death duet, if you will.

• Lines 46-50: At first, we see the speaker treating death like everybody else. He "covers" the coffins with reminders of life in order to prove life's perseverance. But, via apostrophe, he also addresses death as "sane and sacred." So even early on, the speaker recognizes the natural and necessary essence of death.
• Lines 120-122: We see the speaker holding hands with two sides of death: the "knowledge of death" and the "thought of death." We understand that the former represents the speaker's understanding of the natural and even beautiful essence of death, while the latter represents all of those anxieties we usually have about death. And yet, everyone is holding hands and getting along.
• Lines 135-163: The "song of the bird" is dedicated to death (and the one the speaker loves). It's here that we get the metaphor of death as a "Dark mother" and her "loving floating ocean." The speaker "floats this carol with joy" and celebrates the beauty and unifying power that "Undulate[s] round the world." Through this song, the speaker comes to a better understanding of death and is transformed by his acceptance and celebration of it.