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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. What does the narrator bring to the runaway slave when he encounters him in Section 10?
(a) A letter.
(b) A bale of hay.
(c) A tub of water.
(d) An old dog.

2. What adjective does the narrator use in describing the summer morning in Section 5?
(a)
(b) “Retrograde.”
(c) “Boiling.”
(d) “Transparent.”

3. The narrator asserts in Section 21, “I am not the poet of goodness only, I do not decline to be the poet of” what also?
(a) “Lies.”
(b) “Wickedness.”
(c) “Deceit.”
(d) “Destruction.”

4. What does the narrator say that seeing “at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books” in Section 24?
(a) “A sunflower.”
(b) “A pansy.”
(c) “A puppy.”
(d) “A morning-glory.”

5. The narrator compels the reader in Section 2 by stating, “Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess” what?
(a) “The keys to humanity.”
(b) “All the secrets of nature.”
(c) “Belief in a higher power.”
(d) “The origin of all poems.”

Short Answer Questions

1. What question does the narrator say a child asked in Section 6?

2. In Section 21, the poet claims, “I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the” what?

3. What word does the poet describe as “a word of the modern” in Section 23?

4. What word from Section 6 refers to a figure or symbol with a hidden meaning?

5. How many horses is “the negro” driving in Section 13?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the poet relate with the “wild gander” in Section 14?

2. What imagery is the focus of Section 11 of the poem?

3. Whom does the poet invite to eat the meal in Section 19?

4. How does the poet define “I” and “you” in response to his own questions in Section 20?

5. How does the poet relate the quality of “aroma” and of the air in Section 2?

6. How have critics and scholars interpreted the following sexually implicit lines in Section 5: “How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over upon me”?

7. What motif reappears in Section 17? Why does the poet use this motif here?

8. What motif returns to the narrative in Section 6? How is this motif examined here?

9. After calling out to the Earth in Section 21, what does Whitman address in Section 22?

10. What new journey does the poet embark upon beginning in Section 8 of the poem?

(see the answer keys)

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