Feet!

And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare stript heart, And reached till you felt my beard and reached till you felt my feet

• In this passage feet are used as a sensual organ. When someone touches another persons feet a unique connection is formed because feet carry our bodies, they are incredibly sacred.

Selling all he possesses and traveling on foot to fee lawyers for his brother and sit by him while

he is tried for forgery:  

• Feet are a means of labor for vindication.

Her father and his friends sat near cross-legged and dumbly

smoking, they had moccasin to their feet

 and large thick blankets hanging from their shoulders

•  The original Ugg's. 

 

She had long eyelashes an, her head was bare, her coarse

straight locks descended upon her voluptuous limps and reach'd her feet

•  Once again their location is sensual.  They add to the beauty of our bodies when emphasized, yet they are usually unnoticed and hidden. Feet are taboo. 
 

 

And went where he sat on a log and led him in and assured him,

And brought water and fill'd a tub for his sweated body and bruis'd feet.  

• Reference to a sacred act (Jesus washing feet).

It sails me . . . . I dab with bare feet . . . . they are licked by the indolent waves,

I am exposed . . . . cut by bitter and poisoned hail,

Steeped amid honeyed morphine . . . . my windpipe squeezed in the fakes of death,

Let up again to feel the puzzle of puzzles,

And that we call Being

• Sense of touch is extra special with the feet, it is a rarer sensation than with the hands.

My ties and ballasts leave me . . . . I travel . . . . I sail . . . . my elbows rest in the sea-gaps,

I skirt the sierras . . . . my palms cover continents,

I am afoot with my vision....

• The vision is in motion, feet are what move us.  

Coming home with the bearded and dark-cheeked bush-boy . . . . riding behind him at the drape

of the day;

Far from the settlements studying the print of animals' feet, or the moccasin print;

•  Feet can tell us so much about where someone has been and who they are. Feet leave our imprint on the world and touch more than we realize. People leave their imprints on the world through feet and pick up pieces without any notion of it.
 

 

We are about approaching some great battlefield in which we are soon to be engaged,

We pass the colossal outposts of the encampments . . . . we pass with still feet and caution;

Or we are entering by the suburbs some vast and ruined city . . . . the blocks and fallen

architecture more than all the living cities of the globe.

• Our feet express our feelings
 

 

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot soles.

• Everyone turns to dust and will be under someones feet. If we look under our feet in nature we will find dirt, dust or sand. This is not only a connection with the natural world but also everything that has ever lived on this planet.

We all have feet (unless something horrible happened that cost us our precious limbs). Our feet are something that have taken us everywhere we've been and can take us to new places, they are sacred and one of our most useful tools. Our stories are the stories of our feet, feet are beautiful and prized possessions that connect us to the  Earth, to other feet and to everything else. Whitman uses this motif because of the strong connection that feet have with Earth and with our bodies. They are the Herald of our senses and stories, they are the closest organ to grass, and the ultimate connector.