Walt Whitman
AP English Language and Composition
C. Bendixen
As we read these poems, please write down the theme of each, as you understand it,
in your notebook.
Whitman: Read Bio. pages 991-995
Read “Song of Myself” I (1011), 6 (1014), 16 (1022), 33 – beginning with line 822
(1038), 51 & 52 (1054-1055), “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (1057-1062), “When I Heard
the Learn’d Astronomer” (1067), and “A Sight in the Camp in the Daybreak Grey and
Dim” (online handout), and “I Hear America Singing” (online handout).
“Song of Myself”
1. Stanza 1 – find examples of alliteration, assonance, repetition, and parallel
structure. What tone does Whitman set in this stanza?
2. What is Whitman saying in Stanza 1? Explain.
3. Stanza 6 – Why does Whitman use Rhetorical Questions in this stanza? What is
the effect?
4. What is the theme of this stanza?
5. Stanza 16 – Discuss Whitman’s use of Cataloging and Parallel Structure in this
stanza. How do they fit with his theme in this stanza?
6. Stanza 33 – Discuss the effects of the shifting points of view in this stanza.
7. What words and phrases indicate Whitman’s empathy with heroic people? What
images help us feel as if we are there? How would you describe the speaker’s
tone?
8. How does Whitman use literary elements to produce dramatic, yet irregular,
rhythm in these lines? How does it enhance the scene of the attack?
9. Stanza 51 – To whom is Whitman speaking in this stanza? What is he asking?
10. Stanza 52 – What verb tense does Whitman use? What verbs does he use in
unusual ways? What is the effect?
11. Suppose you had to select a line or word from this poem to characterize him.
Which line(s) or word(s) from these stanzas would you select, and why?
“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
12. Explain the idea of shared experience in this poem and give examples.
“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”
13. Explain how parallel structure in the first half of the poem affects the second half
of the poem.
14. Do you agree with what Whitman is saying in this poem? Explain.
“A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Grey and Dim”
15. What was your emotional response to “A Sight in Camp”? What specific words or
images affected your response?
16. What do you think is the message behind this poem?
17. Paul Zweig, one of Whitman’s biographers, says that Whitman had a genius for
the single line, “the verbal snapshot.” Do you agree with this observation? Which
images in this poem make particularly unusual and evocative “verbal snapshots?
“I Hear America Singing”
18. Find an example of an elliptical construction and explain what it means.
19. This whole poem can be viewed as a catalog. What is Whitman celebrating in this
poem?
20. A feeling of acceptance, even of contentment, runs throughout the sounds of these
many voices. Considering the long hours and small pay of laborers in the
nineteenth century, would you say Whitman is romanticizing or idealizing their
lot? Or would you say the songs her hears are expressions of independence and
joy in life? Support your response with specific references to the poem.
Response: One of Whitman’s contemporaries writes the following about Leaves of
Grass: “What we thought ridiculous in the title is eclipsed in the pages of this . . . mass
of egotism . . . “ Do you think the reviewer’s comment applies to “Song of Myself”?
Write a brief (approx. one long paragraph) critical review, using details from the poem
for support.
Terms to understand, define, and recognize in relation to the poems and poets:
Free verse – poetry written without regular rhyme and meter.
Catalog – long lists of related things, people, or events.
Cadence – the run of words that rise and fall in emphasis of making a point.
Paradox – a statement that appears self-contradictory but that reveals a kind of truth.
Metaphor – comparing two unlike things without the use of comparison words.
Simile – comparing two unlike things using “like” or “as”.
Personification – when an object or animal is given human characteristics.
Irony – in general, a discrepancy between appearances and reality.
Parallel Structure – the repetition of the same or similar words, phrases, clauses, or
sentences.
Onomatopoeia – the use of words whose sounds echo their meaning.
Assonance – the repetition of similar vowel sounds.
Alliteration – the repetition of similar consonant sounds.
Imagery – the use of language to evoke visual pictures, as well as sensations of smell,
hearing, taste and touch.
Elliptical Constructions – sentences with words left out