Author: Molly Coffman
Last saved by: Molly L. Coffman
Company: Jackson-Madison County School System

Walt Whitman
	born:  ______________	died:  _______________

	1855:  published his collection of poems _______________________ at his own 		           expense
--Whitman considered each of his poems to be a separate leaf or blade of grass 
	* because they were divine (though common) 
	* because they were symbolic of life and cycles of birth and death (ever renewed) and 
	* because they were significant both individually and in the mass.
	
	Emerson’s response:  “ . . . I give you joy of your free and brave thought.  I have 
	great joy in it.  I find incomparable things said incomparably well . . .”
	“I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long 
	foreground somewhere, for such a start.”

	Leaves of Grass was published _________ times.

	He modified the standard, “King’s English” ______________ and abandoned
	traditional __________________________ and _________________________ 
	in favor of the rhythms and speech patterns of ____________________.

“I Hear America Singing”
p. 352

1.  What kinds of people does Whitman celebrate?

2.  Why does the speaker say that each person’s singing should be “blithe and strong”?

3.  What is the tone of Whitman’s poem?  What words or phrases convey this tone?

4.  How this poem an example of a catalog?

from “Song of Myself” 10.
p. 353

1.  What event does the first stanza (lines 1-5) focus on?

2.  How is this an example of a catalog?

3.  What is the focus of the second stanza (lines 6-7)?

4.  What is the tone of the second stanza?  Give specific examples.

5.  What is the focus of the third stanza (lines 8-10)?

6.  What is the tone of the third stanza?  Give specific examples.

7.  What is the focus of the fourth stanza (lines 11-14)?

8.  What is the focus of the fifth stanza (lines 15-24)?

9.  How is the tone of the fourth and fifth stanzas different from the first three?  Support your answer.

from “Song of Myself” 33.
p. 356

10.  He begins “I understand the large hearts of heroes.”  Who is the hero of the first 11 lines?  Why does Whitman consider him heroic?

11.  Who is the hero of lines 12-13?  Why?

12.  Who is the hero of lines 14-22?  How is he a hero?

13.  Who is the hero of lines 26-34?

14.  Who is the hero of 37-49?

15.  Select at least one image from each of the above sections that stands out to you and explain why.
	1-11:

	12-13:

	14-22:

	26-34:

	37-49:

16.  How would you describe the tone of this poem?  Why?

17.  The speaker says “I am the man, I suffer’d, I was there.” What could this mean?

“A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim”
p. 362

18.  Read the “Make the Connection: The Suffering of Thousands’ at the top of the page.  What is the context of this poem?

19.  Each of the three forms the speaker sees is covered with a large blanket.  What can you infer?

20.  Describe the first “form” (line 9).

21.  Describe the second “form” (lines 11-12).

22.  Describe the third “form” (lines 13-15).

23.  How can the third be “the face of Christ himself”? What similarities do the man and Christ share?

24.  What is the tone of this poem?  Support your answer.

25.  What images stood out as you read?  Why?