Name:
Date:
Hour:
L
T4: Talk To The Text in Jigsaw Groups with Whitman’s poetry
Directions: in your assigned group, you will continue practicing your active reading skills
through T4.
1. Read the poem out loud as a group to get an overall feel for the poem’s rhythm.
2. Reread the poem silently on your own and physically mark up (highlight, underline,
circle, etc.) areas of the poem that you are “talking to.” Look for/try to point out literary
terms you already know such as repetition, parallel structure, theme, tone, etc.
3. Help each other out with T4’ing—what did you notice that someone else didn’t?
4. After talking through your notes, answer the post-reading questions.
5. As a group, be prepared to do a mini presentation of your findings to the class.
from Song of Myself
1 I celebrate myself, and sing myself
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
[A]
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back awhile sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.
[B]
A. Literary Focus: How does Whitman create rhythm and flow in these opening lines?
B. Reading Focus: In your own words, restate this line (what is it trying to say?). What does
this line reveal about Whitman’s view of nature?
Name:
Date:
Hour:
L
T4: Talk To The Text in Jigsaw Groups with Whitman’s poetry
from Song of Myself
52 The spotted hawk swoops by
Directions: in your assigned group, you will continue practicing your active reading skills
through T4.
1. Read the poem out loud as a group to get an overall feel for the poem’s rhythm.
2. Reread the poem silently on your own and physically mark up (highlight, underline,
circle, etc.) areas of the poem that you are “talking to.” Look for/try to point out literary
terms you already know such as repetition, parallel structure, theme, tone, etc.
3. Help each other out with T4’ing—what did you notice that someone else didn’t?
4. After talking through your notes, answer the post-reading questions.
5. As a group, be prepared to do a mini presentation of your findings to the class.
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains
of my bag and my loitering. [A]
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
The last scud of day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
Ieffuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
[B]
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fiber your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.
[C]
A. Literary Focus: Theme- how does the image of the hawk relate to the main subjects
(concepts, themes) of other Whitman poems?
B. Reading Focus: Comparing themes across texts- how does this line echo subjects and themes
from earlier parts of Whitman’s poetry?
Name:
Date:
Hour:
L
T4: Talk To The Text in Jigsaw Groups with Whitman’s poetry
Directions: in your assigned group, you will continue practicing your active reading skills
through T4.
1. Read the poem out loud as a group to get an overall feel for the poem’s rhythm.
2. Reread the poem silently on your own and physically mark up (highlight, underline,
circle, etc.) areas of the poem that you are “talking to.” Look for/try to point out literary
terms you already know such as repetition, parallel structure, theme, tone, etc.
3. Help each other out with T4’ing—what did you notice that someone else didn’t?
4. After talking through your notes, answer the post-reading questions.
5. As a group, be prepared to do a mini presentation of your findings to the class.
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
When I heard the learn’d astronomer
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in
the lecture-room, [A] [B]
How soon, unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
A. Literary Focus: Parallelism- how does the poet’s use of parallelism affect the emotional
impact of the first four lines?
B. Literary Focus: Parallelism – where does Whitman use parallel structure within the parallel
subordinate clauses? What effect does the additional parallelism have on the poem?
Name:
Date:
Hour:
L
T4: Talk To The Text in Jigsaw Groups with Whitman’s poetry
Directions: in your assigned group, you will continue practicing your active reading skills
through T4.
1. Read the poem out loud as a group to get an overall feel for the poem’s rhythm.
2. Reread the poem silently on your own and physically mark up (highlight, underline,
circle, etc.) areas of the poem that you are “talking to.” Look for/try to point out literary
terms you already know such as repetition, parallel structure, theme, tone, etc.
3. Help each other out with T4’ing—what did you notice that someone else didn’t?
4. After talking through your notes, answer the post-reading questions.
5. As a group, be prepared to do a mini presentation of your findings to the class.
A Noiseless Patient Spider
A noiseless, patient spider,
I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated,
Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.
[A]
And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres
to connect them
Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.
[B]
A. Literary Focus: Analogy- what important characteristics of the spider does the speaker
emphasize? Why do you think the speaker emphasizes this characteristic?
B. Reading Focus: Visualizing Imagery- paraphrase the images in these last two lines. How do
they connect to the images in the previous stanza?
Name:
Date:
Hour:
L
from Song of Myself
1 I celebrate myself, and sing myself
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
[A]
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the
same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back awhile sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.
[B]
Name:
Date:
Hour:
from Song of Myself
52 The spotted hawk swoops by
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains
of my bag and my loitering.
[A]
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
The last scud of day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
Ieffuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fiber your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.
[C]
[B]
L
Name:
Date:
Hour:
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
When I heard the learn’d astronomer
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and
measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much
applause in
the lecture-room,
[A] [B]
How soon, unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
L
Name:
Date:
Hour:
A Noiseless Patient Spider
A noiseless, patient spider,
I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated,
Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.
[A]
And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres
to connect them
Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.
[B]
L