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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. Section 9 begins with a description of the big doors of what building standing open?
2. What instruments does the narrator describe playing in the opening of Section 18?
3. To what does the narrator say “I resign myself to you also” in the beginning of Section 21?
4. What word from Section 5 refers to a beam fastened to the keel of a vessel for strength?
5. The narrator compares months to what in Section 20?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does the poet’s delineation of “self” evolve in Section 5 of the poem?
2. 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.”?
3. What is Whitman’s “advice” to the reader in Section 11 of the poem?
4. What Christian allusion can be seen in the opening of Section 21?
5. What symbolism and metaphor are illustrated in Section 9 of the poem?
6. 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”?
7. How is “the lunatic” described in Section 15 of the poem?
8. 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”?
9. What motif returns to the narrative in Section 6? How is this motif examined here?
10. What comparison of women and men is made by the poet in Section 21?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Discuss Walt Whitman’s depictions of nature versus modernization, science, and technology. Do you think Whitman perceived science as being akin to spirituality? How did his viewpoints in the poem coincide with traditional thought?
Essay Topic 2
Define “religious allusion” in literature and give examples of religious allusion in the poem. Where does the poet’s wording borderline upon Christian or other religious texts? Why does Whitman choose to incorporate religious allusion in the poem?
Essay Topic 3
Discuss the setting of the country barn and the poet’s depiction of harvest time in Section 9. What is being loaded on the wagon and how what symbolism does this crop imply? How is the crop related to the other symbolic motifs in the poem?
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This section contains 965 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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