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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 poet say he opens at night to “see the far-sprinkled systems” in Section 45?
(a) A pismire.
(b) A prism.
(c) A scuttle.
(d) A telescope.

2. The poet says in Section 44, “I am an acme of things accomplish’d, and I am an enclose of” what?
(a) “Things forgotten.”
(b) “Things remembered.”
(c) “Things to be.”
(d) “The impossible.”

3. What is described as “the cataract falling like a veil over my countenance” in Section 33?
(a) The Nile.
(b) Niagara.
(c) Bridal Veil Falls.
(d) The Atlantic Ocean.

4. What are described as “making a rush for my veins” in Section 28?
(a) “Curtains of gold.”
(b) “Chariots of fire.”
(c) “Flames and ether.”
(d) “Winds of worry.”

5. What animal “walks to and fro on a limb overhead” in Section 33?
(a) The panther.
(b) The bird.
(c) The lemur.
(d) The squirrel.

Short Answer Questions

1. What word does Whitman use in Section 43 to refer to a Mesoamerican pyramid surmounted by a temple?

2. The poet says in Section 46, “No friend of mine takes his ease” where?

3. “Words” are described as being as “simple as” what, in Section 39?

4. The poet asserts in Section 25, “Come now I will not be tantalized, you conceive too much of” what?

5. What creature “in his tough pimples sleeps by the bayou” in Section 33?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the motif of the journey described in Section 46 of the poem?

2. Which of the five senses is introduced in Section 27? What animal is cited in this section?

3. What is the central message in Section 29 of the poem?

4. How does the poet relate truth and nature in Sections 30 and 31?

5. What does the poet question and attempt to answer in Section 40 of the poem?

6. Why and how does Whitman turn to the sense of sound in Section 26?

7. How does Whitman address the faults of mankind in Section 32?

8. With what individuals does the poet relate in Section 33?

9. What setting does the narrator take the reader to in Section 34?

10. To what are flames compared in Section 28? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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