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

2. What color, in addition to green, is considered the “tufted crown intentional” by the narrator in Section 13?

3. Section 9 begins with a description of the big doors of what building standing open?

4. Who is described “with grimed and hairy chests” environing the anvil in Section 12?

5. The narrator asks the reader in Section 2, “Have you reckon’d” how many acres?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is “the negro” described in Section 13 of the poem?

2. How does Section 13 begin? What is the focus of this section of the poem?

3. With whom does the poet relate in the beginning of Section 16?

4. How does the poet relate the quality of “aroma” and of the air in Section 2?

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

6. What does Walt Whitman praise and celebrate in Section 23 of the poem?

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

8. Over what elements does the poet describe Earth reigning in Section 21?

9. 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”?

10. What foreshadowing is exhibited in Section 1 of the poem? How is the universal “I” set up in this section?

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

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?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the symbolism of the blade of grass that Whitman uses throughout “Song of Myself.” What have critics and scholars associated this motif with symbolically? How many times does the poet refer to the blade of grass in the poem? How does the grass relate to human existence?

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