Poem

"Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?  I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.  I pass death with the dying and birth with the new-wash'd babe, and am not contain'd between my hat and boots,"

The first sentence really strikes me since I have never thought about this before.  Am I lucky to be born?  So many people take life for granted and never really appreciate the fact that they were brought into this world from basically nothing.  Mothers lose their babies through miscarriage all the time, and though it isn't something openly talked about, it's still very common.  If people realized how lucky they are to have been born then maybe they would appreciate life a little more.  People who are depressed may have a different outlook if they considered how they got here (earth) in the first place.  The common saying "you are the sperm that won" while being somewhat funny, is also encouraging in the sense that you had to fight for your life to begin and look how far you have come, keep fighting.  My take from "has any one supposed it lucky to be born?" is that the poet is trying to encourage people to think about themselves compared to their environment.  How they ended up where they are from the very beginning; they should feel blessed that they had this opportunity.

When Whitman says "I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die" it has a similar meaning to the first sentence.  At first a person wouldn't understand what he's saying; what do you mean I am lucky to die?  Whitman is saying you are lucky to die because most people never get to (they're never born).  Whitman has the same previous idea towards what he is saying in this sentence.  His life isn't stuck to his material possessions "between my hat and boots," they aren't what make him significant.