The poem mentions the blade of grass many times: the blade of grass symbolizes all ordinary things and ordinary people. The background of this poem is the streets of new york and the beaches of Long Island, which reflects the life of all the working class: carriages loaded with straw, boatmen and clams diggers, butcher boys, blacksmiths, black people driving carriages, carpenters and navigators, spinning women, compositors, road builders, fiber draggers, prostitutes and so on. In his poems, the poet described the image of a runaway slave with very soft brushstrokes.