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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. For what does the narrator exclaim “Hurrah!” for in Section 23?
(a) “Positive emotions.”
(b) “Politics.”
(c) “Positive science.”
(d) “Events.”

2. The narrator claims in Section 15, “The married and unmarried children ride home to their” what?
(a) “Easter dinner.”
(b) “Labor Day brunch.”
(c) “Christmas dinner.”
(d) “Thanksgiving dinner.”

3. What question does the narrator say a child asked in Section 6?
(a) “Who are the birds?”
(b) “Where are the turtles?”
(c) “When will summer come?”
(d) “What is the grass?”

4. The poet claims in Section 21 that “it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,” and that “there is nothing greater than” what?
(a) “The cousin of the animals.”
(b) “The mother of men.”
(c) “The owner of the animals.”
(d) “The father of children.”

5. Who does the narrator ask in Section 13, “What is it that you express in your eyes?”
(a) The horses.
(b) The cows.
(c) The goats.
(d) The oxen.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Whose proper name is stated in the poem in the beginning of Section 24?

3. What sound is the “wild gander” cited as calling out as he passes in Section 14?

4. What word from Section 5 refers to a beam fastened to the keel of a vessel for strength?

5. The narrator claims to “lean and loafe at my ease observing” what, in Section 1?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the poet’s implication with the following lines from Section 4: “There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now”?

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

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

4. What is Whitman’s conclusion regarding “failure” in Section 18?

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

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

7. What does Walt Whitman praise and celebrate in Section 23 of the poem?

8. What symbolism and metaphor are illustrated in Section 9 of the poem?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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