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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 45 begins, “O span of youth! Ever-push’d” what?

2. “Behavior” is described as “lawless” as what in Section 39?

3. The poet describes coming again upon the earth after how many years in Section 43?

4. What “is drawn on the slip-noose” in Section 33?

5. According to the poet in Section 30, “All truths wait in” what?

Short Essay Questions

1. With what characters does the narrator relate in Section 37?

2. What sense and expression is discussed in the opening of Section 25?

3. How are the Native Americans depicted in Section 39?

4. How are time and eternity defined in Section 44 of the poem?

5. What have the “sentries” done, according to the narrator in Section 28?

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

7. Where does the poet “stand” in Section 44? What conclusion has he reached?

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

9. What does the poet remark about animals in the opening of Section 32?

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

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 and discuss “metaphor” and “simile” in literature and poetry. Using an excerpt from “Song of Me,” show the different metaphors and similes in the poem. How does the poet use these comparisons as a way to explain? How do the metaphors and similes in the early parts of the poem help to establish the poem’s mood and tone?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Walt Whitman’s comparisons of those things that appear minute and/or mundane with those that appear vast and overshadowing. What is the poet’s point in these illustrations in Section 31? What conclusions does the poet reach?

(see the answer keys)

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