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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. From the sea of ________, Whitman says that he will collect and bring a windrow drift of weeds and shells.
(a) Patriotism.
(b) Truth.
(c) Time.
(d) Belief.

2. Whitman says that he sings the songs of the glory of ___________, not God.
(a) Earth.
(b) None.
(c) Nature.
(d) Words.

3. Who does Whitman describe as being lean and sinewy with muscular legs, thinly clothed, and well trained?
(a) Teacher.
(b) Pioneer.
(c) President.
(d) Runner.

4. Whitman says that years of ____________ are transient and strange, though he says he too is one.
(a) Meteors.
(b) Ideas.
(c) Beauty.
(d) Politicians.

5. To whom is Whitman referring when he talks about the estuary which enlarges and spread itself grandly in the great sea?
(a) Time.
(b) His father.
(c) His words.
(d) Old age.

Short Answer Questions

1. What occurs once at sunrise and once at sunset, according to Whitman as he describes nature?

2. Where does Whitman stop in order to satisfy his curiosity about what is inside?

3. What kind of birds fly together, interlocking their claws and beating their wings as one in the poem Whitman includes?

4. Whitman was seized by a spirit, held by an _________self out of the pride which causes him to utter poems.

5. Which is the ancient country which Whitman seems to think is progressing into the future, much in the same way as America?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the plowman used in reference and as a metaphor for death in Whitman's poem?

2. What does Whitman ask the soul to do in the poems about addressing the idea of mortality?

3. Who are the phantoms to which Whitman refers in his poems about love being lost?

4. How is the meteor used as a metaphor in the poem called, "Year of Meteors," which Whitman has written?

5. What is an endless source of inspiration for poetry, according to the poems which the poet has created?

6. Why is it sad when one of the birds in a couple dies and the other one does not know it?

7. What does a muse beckon Whitman to do in the beginning of these poems in this section?

8. What happens to the summer rains, according to Whitman's poem "Autumn Rivulets"?

9. Why does the young man ring the ocean bell when he is steering the boat during the treacherous weather?

10. To whom does Whitman compare the country of old Ireland, in his poem to this land?

(see the answer keys)

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