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Name________________ Littell English____ Block______ Date_________________
Walt Whitman
Part I: Read the author information on Whitman on page 405 of your text. Take notes below.
Part II: Now, turn back to page 396, read “Build Background.” Answer the following questions:
- How was Whitman’s first book of poems, Leaves of Grass , received?
- How did Whitman view his own poetry? What did it capture?
- Identify the two ways in which his poetry captures the American life.
- What theme ideas and values does Whitman’s poetry contain?
Part III: On the next three pages, you will find Whitman’s poems. Write summaries of these
poems underneath or to the right of the poem. Try to write what meaning Whitman is
conveying.
“I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman
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.
The next three poems are numbered and all come from one long poem called “Song of Myself.”
Treat each one separately at first. Then, we’ll go back and put them together thematically.
1
I Celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loaf and invite my soul, I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death.
Creeds and schools in abeyance, Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard, Nature without check with original energy.
A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt, Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose?
Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation. Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic, And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones, Growing among black folks as among white, Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive then the same.
And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves. Tenderly will I use you curling grass, It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men, It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken, It may be if I had known them I would have loved them, soon out of their mother's laps, And here you are the mothers' laps.
This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers, Darker than the colorless beards of old men, Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.
O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues, And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.
I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women, And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their laps.
What do you think has become of the young and old men? And what do you think has become of the women and children?
Part IV: Complete the following TPCASTT Chart for one of the two poems.
TPCASTT What to Look for Questions to answer in next column. Answer the question(s). Always be thinking of under the surface meaning here. T itle What is its literal meaning?
P araphrase (^) What does the poem say? This is a surface read. Do not read into the words yet.
(For your poems, this has already been completed with the paragraphs.)
C onnotation diction and symbolism imagery metaphors and similes rhyme scheme end rhymes and internal rhymes alliteration assonance consonance allusions punctuation personification …
Look for deeper meaning.
A ttitude (author’s tone) How is the writer speaking?
S hifts (in tone, action, rhythm) How do the shifts affect the poem?
T itle (yes, again) Reevaluate the title as it pertains to
what you have discovered.
T heme What does the poem mean? What is it
saying? How does it relate to life?
