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Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
From "Preface" from Leaves of Grass [1855]
The greatest poet hardly knows pettiness or triviality. If he breathes into anything that was before thought small it dilates with the grandeur and life of the universe. He is a seer … he is individual … he is complete in himself … the others are as good as he, only he sees it and they do not. He is not one of the chorus … he does not stop for any regulation … he is the president of regulation. What the eyesight does to the rest he does to the rest. Who knows the curious mystery of the eyesight? The other senses corroborate themselves, but this is removed from any proof but its own and foreruns the identities of the spiritual world. A single glance of it mocks all the investigations of man and all the instruments and books of the earth and all reasoning. What is marvellous? what is unlikely? what is impossible or baseless or vague? after you have once just opened the space of a peachpit and given audience to far and near and to the sunset and had all things enter with electric swiftness softly and duly without confusion or jostling or jam.
The land and sea, the animals, fishes, and birds, the sky of heaven and the orbs, the forests, mountains, and rivers, are not small themes … but folks expect of the poet to indicate more than the beauty and dignity which always attach to dumb real objects … they expect him to indicate the path between reality and their souls. Men and women perceive the beauty well enough … probably as well as he. The passionate tenacity of hunters, woodmen, early risers, cultivators of gardens and orchards and fields, the love of healthy women for the manly form, seafaring persons, drivers of horses, the passion for light and the open air, all is an old varied sign of the unfailing perception of beauty and of a residence of the poetic in outdoor people. They can never be assisted by poets to perceive … some may but they never can. The poetic quality is not marshalled in rhyme or uniformity or abstract addresses to things nor in melancholy complaints or good precepts, but is the life of these and much else and is in the soul. The profit of rhyme is that it drops seeds of a sweeter and more luxuriant rhyme, and of uniformity that it conveys itself into its own roots in the ground out of sight. The rhyme and uniformity of perfect poems show the free growth of metrical laws and bud from them as unerringly and loosely as lilacs and roses on a bush, and take shapes as compact as the shapes of chestnuts and oranges and melons and pears, and shed the perfume impalpable to form. The fluency and ornaments of the finest poems or music or orations or recitations are not independent but dependent.
Questions for Discussion
1. Which idea is presented first in the passage? A) The usual subjects of poems are not small themes. B) All people can perceive the beauty well enough. C) A poem contains fluency and ornaments. D) The poet is the president of regulation. 2. In the first sentence, the word triviality means A) insignificance B) weariness C) arrogance D) uncertainty 3. In Paragraph 2, Whitman states that men and women perceive the beauty of nature just as well as the poet does. The role of the poet, then, is to A) help people contemplate nature B) unite different people in appreciation of nature C) show a higher meaning of nature D) describe the details of nature
4. Within the context of this passage, the phrase "opened the space of a peachpit" MOST likely means to have A) expanded awareness in an unexpected way B) respected the knowledge found in poetry C) imitated the methods of science D) listened to the problems of ordinary people
5. According to the author, people want poets to A )express themselves without confusion or jostling or jam B) indicate the path between reality and their souls C) embody the passionate tenacity of hunters D) express their ideas in melancholy complaints or good precepts 6. When the author states that poems formal aspects "bud from them as unerringly and loosely as lilacs or roses on a bush," he is using a poetic device called A) simile B) iambic pentameter C) personification D) onomatopoeia 7. Read the sentence below.
The rhyme and uniformity of perfect poems show the free growth of metrical laws and bud from them as unerringly and loosely as lilacs or roses on a bush . . .
In this sentence, the word unerringly means A) very nearly B) quite quickly C) without fail D) securely
8. Which question is NOT addressed in the passage? A) Where do poets get their inspiration? B) What do people want from poets? C) How should poems be read? D) Why are poets important?
9. The main idea of this passage is that poetry A) is subject to the laws of meter and rhyme B) is created through the vision of the poet C) often describes natural objects D) does not appeal to all people equally 10. Based on the passage, the reader could MOST logically predict that Whitman's own poetry A) is frequently set to music B) follows laws of rhythm and meter C) is not tied to formal requirements D) concerns itself only with natural occurrences
11. American literature before the War Between the States was heavily influenced by a philosophy called A) Transcendentalism B) Modernism C) Realism D) Objectivism 12. The sentence below contains an example of
The brakes screeched as the car came to a halt. A) a simile B) irony C) alliteration D) onomatopoeia
1. D 2. A 3. C 4. A 5. B 6. A 7. C 8. C 9. B 10. C 11. A 12. D
I Hear America Sing [1867]
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat
deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands.
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission
or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or
washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
Questions for Discussion
1. Judging from this poem, it is most probable that the poet favors
A) teachers
B) workingmen
C) executives
D) singers
E) athletes
2. The poet’s main purpose in this poem is to
A) indicate that women belong in the house
B) criticize America’s economy
C) celebrate the American worker
D) speak out in favor of socialism
E) show that all work is basically the same
3. The tone of this poem can best be described as
A) joyful
B) humorous
C) impatient
D) peaceful
E) careless
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer [1855]
When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
Questions for Discussion
1. Which of the following statements represents the main theme of the poem? A) Science cannot fully express the wonder of the world. B) Nature is one’s best source of recreation. C) Technology causes more problems than it solves. D) Learning causes one to become ill and fatigued.
2. In line 5, what is conveyed by the phrase “tired and sick”? A) the speaker’s sorrow and loss experienced in his life B) a sense of approaching danger C) a sense of the speaker’s poor health D) the speaker’s boredom and disappointment with the lecture
3. What is the main purpose of the phrase “perfect silence” in the last line of the poem? A) to explain why he has to leave the lecture room B) to convey a sense of loneliness and sorrow C) to contrast with the sounds in the lecture room D) to highlight the pleasure of science and learning 4. What do the last three lines of the poem suggest? A) the importance of personal experience with nature B) the dangers of losing track of time C) the importance of learning about astronomy D) the dangers of wandering off alone 5. Which of the following is the best synonym for the word learn’d as it is used in line 1? A) aware B) remembered C) knowledgeable D) invented
1. A; 2. D; 3. C; 4. A; 5. C
O Captain! My Captain! [1865] O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills; For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding; For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head; It is some dream that on the deck, You’ve fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done; From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
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