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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. To what does the narrator say “I resign myself to you also” in the beginning of Section 21?

2. Which word from Section 12 means “limber” or “flexible”?

3. The narrator claims “I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or” what, in Section 20?

4. The narrator claims in Section 7, “I pass death with the dying and birth with the new-wash’d babe, and am not contain’d between my” what?

5. The narrator compels the reader in Section 2 by stating, “Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess” what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What imagery is the focus of Section 11 of the poem?

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

3. What motif returns to the narrative in Section 6? How is this motif examined here?

4. What new journey does the poet embark upon beginning in Section 8 of the poem?

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

6. What symbolism and metaphor are illustrated in Section 9 of the poem?

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. For whom does Whitman describe playing victory marches in Section 18?

10. What “characters” does the poet embody in Section 10?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Define “assonance” and “alliteration” and give examples of each in the poem. Why does the poet choose to employ these techniques? What effect to the commonality of the sounds have on the reader?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the issues of slavery and race relations in 1855 when the poem was first published. What were Walt Whitman’s political views regarding slavery and the dissention between the North and South at this time? What elements of racial relations have been seen in “Song of Myself”?

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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