# As at Thy Portals Also Death explained — Leaves of Grass

> Chapter companion for Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

## What happens

The narrator addresses Death at its threshold, recalling his mother with deep emotion and reverence. He describes her calm, beautiful face in the coffin, kissing her lips and cheeks, and declares he will carve a monumental line and set a tombstone for her within his songs.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and Immortality

The poem directly confronts death as a portal and explores the enduring memory of the mother beyond physical burial.

### Comradeship and Love

The deep, personal love for the mother is expressed through vivid, tender recollections and the act of kissing her in the coffin.

## Character check-ins

### Narrator

The speaker who enters Death's portals and mourns his mother.

### Death

Addressed as the sovereign of dim, illimitable grounds.

### Dread Mother

The buried mother, remembered with love and described as the ideal woman.

## Key lines

> As at thy portals also death, Entering thy sovereign, dim, illimitable grounds, To memories of my mother, to the divine blending, maternity, To her, buried and gone, yet buried not, gone not from me

As I approach your gates, Death, and step into your vast, shadowy realm, I turn to the memory of my mother—the sacred union of motherhood—who is buried and gone, yet still alive and present with me.

_The speaker enters Death's domain but finds his mother's memory undimmed._

> I see again the calm benignant face fresh and beautiful still, I sit by the form in the coffin, I kiss and kiss convulsively again the sweet old lips, the cheeks, the closed eyes in the coffin

I once more behold her serene, kind face, still fresh and lovely; I sit beside her body in the coffin and frantically kiss her sweet old lips, cheeks, and closed eyes.

_A vivid, intimate recollection of the mother's corpse and the speaker's grief-stricken kisses._

> To her, the ideal woman, practical, spiritual, of all of earth, life, love, to me the best, I grave a monumental line, before I go, amid these songs, And set a tombstone here.

For her—the perfect woman, both practical and spiritual, encompassing all of earth, life, and love, and the best to me—I carve a monumental verse before I depart, and place a tombstone within these songs.

_The speaker dedicates a poetic monument to his mother, immortalizing her in his work._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se/chapters/as-at-thy-portals-also-death
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se/chapters