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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. The narrator claims to “lean and loafe at my ease observing” what, in Section 1?
(a) “A falling autumn leaf.”
(b) “A blooming spring flower.”
(c) “The falling flakes of snow.”
(d) “A spear of summer grass.”

2. How many horses is “the negro” driving in Section 13?
(a) 8.
(b) 4.
(c) 6.
(d) 2.

3. The narrator claims in Section 14, “What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is” what?
(a) “William.”
(b) “Me.”
(c) “Peter.”
(d) “God.”

4. The narrator claims “I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or” what, in Section 20?
(a) “Be admonished.”
(b) “Look to the stars.”
(c) “To confuse.”
(d) “Be understood.”

5. The narrator claims in Section 20, “I laugh at what you call” what?
(a) “Wealth.”
(b) “Sacred.”
(c) “Progress.”
(d) “Dissolution.”

Short Answer Questions

1. The narrator claims in Section 15, “The married and unmarried children ride home to their” what?

2. How many “young men bathe by the shore,” according to the narrator in Section 11?

3. The poet claims in Section 24, “Copulation is no more rank to me than” what is?

4. For how long does the narrator say the runaway slave stayed with him in Section 10?

5. The narrator says in Section 14, “The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred” what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the “twenty-ninth bather” represent metaphorically in Section 11?

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

3. Over what elements does the poet describe Earth reigning in Section 21?

4. What does Whitman conclude of the quality of “presence” in Section 3?

5. How is “the negro” described in Section 13 of the poem?

6. With whom does the poet relate in the beginning of Section 16?

7. What is Whitman’s “advice” to the reader in Section 11 of the poem?

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

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

10. For whom does Whitman describe playing victory marches in Section 18?

(see the answer keys)

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