# To Those Who’ve Fail’d explained — Leaves of Grass

> Chapter companion for Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

## What happens

The speaker honors those who have failed in their grand aspirations, including unnamed soldiers, devoted engineers, ardent travelers, pilots, and unrecognized artists, vowing to build a monument for them high above all others, especially those cut off early by a fiery spirit and early death.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and Immortality

The poem elevates those who died early or failed, granting them a symbolic immortal monument.

### Individuality and Self

Celebrates the unique, often unrecognized individual striving against vast odds.

## Character check-ins

### Narrator

The speaker who vows to honor the failed and fallen.

### Death

Referenced as the early death that quenches the fiery spirit of the failed.

## Key lines

> To those who’ve fail’d, in aspiration vast, To unnam’d soldiers fallen in front on the lead, To calm, devoted engineers⁠—to over-ardent travelers⁠—to pilots on their ships, To many a lofty song and picture without recognition⁠—I’d rear a laurel-cover’d monument, High, high above the rest⁠—To all cut off before their time, Possess’d by some strange spirit of fire, Quench’d by an early death.

For all who have failed in their grand ambitions—unnamed soldiers who fell in battle, dedicated engineers, overly passionate travelers, ship pilots, and many unrecognized artists and poets—I would build a monument covered in laurel, higher than any other, for those taken too soon, consumed by a mysterious fiery spirit, extinguished by an early death.

_The speaker's promise to immortalize the forgotten and failed through a symbolic monument._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se/chapters/to-those-who-ve-fail-d
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se/chapters