Sections 1-5 of the poem introduce Whitman or “the poet” celebrating himself, and also his current state of being and how he got there.  His ideas about life are shown immediately in the opening lines of the poem.  One line states that “What I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (lines 2-3).  This line is one of many throughout the poem that signifies the theme of unity of everything in nature.  The grass which is a major symbol is introduced as well.  The grass grows in the soil, the same soil that he, his parents, and his grandparents were formed from.  The theme of unity comes out again as he describes how not only him, but everyone is formed from this soil.  Whitman’s love of nature is shown in the 2^nd where he would rather breathe in the atmosphere of nature instead of the perfumes and fragrances of other individuals.  “I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, I am mad for it to be in contact with me” (19-20).  These lines go to show that he would much rather be at one with nature instead of living amongst others in society.  He takes delight in his physical senses when he describes “The smoke of my own breath, echoes, ripples, buzz’d whispers…”, “The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves…”, “The sound of the belch’d words of my voice loos’d to the eddies of the wind…”, “The play of shine and shade…” (21-27).  These physical senses are important because this experience of being at one with nature will reveal “the origin of all poems”.  The 3^rd and 4^th sections of the poem show Whitman’s ideas about life and death.  He urges that people not to “talk of the beginning and the end” because “There was never any more inception than there is now” (40), and there is no end.  Instead we are all part of a cycle he describes as “the procreant urge of the world” (45).  This procreant urge he speaks of is the first time that the sexual element emerges in this poem which will later give insight into his own sexual preferences.  He tells of the people he meets who are occupied with things such as the latest dates, discoveries, looks, dues, dress, etc. (67-70), and makes the assertion that these things “are not the Me myself” (74).  These things of society are not of importance to him.  Section 5 shows the spiritual side and the unity of his soul and himself.  “I believe in you my soul…”, “Loafe with me on the grass…”, “I mind how you settled you head athwart my hips and gently turn’d over upon me, and parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare-stript heart” (82-89).  In this scene he is lying on the grass that symbolizes unity with what seems like a sexual experience with his soul and himself.  The last important part of these 5 sections is that the idea of God is introduced to show brotherhood and unity of all men and women.  These first 5 sections of the poem set it up in that some major ideas are given along with the major symbol the grass.  These ideas and this symbol will weave it’s way through the rest of the poem.