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

2. What instruments does the narrator describe playing in the opening of Section 18?
(a) Flutes and whistles.
(b) Tubas and bass.
(c) Cornets and drums.
(d) Drums and piano.

3. In the conclusion of Section 6, the narrator states that “to die is different from what any one supposed, and” what?
(a) “Quicker.”
(b) “Painful.”
(c) “Luckier.”
(d) “Pacifying.”

4. Section 17 ends with the line, “This is the common air that bathes” what?
(a) “The globe.”
(b) “The county.”
(c) “The body.”
(d) “The country.”

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who “sets traps on the creek that helps fill the Huron” in Section 15?

2. The narrator says in Section 24, “I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of” what?

3. The narrator combines the word “respiration” with what word in Section 2?

4. Of “these thoughts,” the narrator says “If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are” what, in Section 17?

5. The narrator of the poem claims in Section 1 that “what I assume you shall” what?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What is signified by these lines from Section 1: “I loafe and invite my soul, / I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass”?

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

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

6. 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”?

7. What is the metaphorical meaning in the following lines from Section 7: “Has any one supposed it lucky to be born? / I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.”?

8. How does the poet’s delineation of “self” evolve in Section 5 of the poem?

9. How is “the lunatic” described in Section 15 of the poem?

10. What Christian allusion can be seen in the opening of Section 21?

(see the answer keys)

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