Walt Whitman Questions and Answers
Walt Whitman
What is the main theme of the poem "I Sit and Look Out," and what is the poet trying to tell us?
The speaker in Walt Whitman's poem “I Sit and Look Out” ponders the inhumanity of human beings. He looks at the sorrow, oppression, and shame of the world, hearing the cries of remorseful young men...
Walt Whitman
What is meant by Walt Whitman's "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain...
When Whitman writes, "Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes)," he is embracing something that is typically thought of as a shortcoming or...
Walt Whitman
I Hear America Singing Theme
I would argue that there are three themes in this wonderful, uplifting poem of Walt Whitman's. The first is the joy that can be found in one's work, the second is companionship, and the third is...
Walt Whitman
What are the figures of speech in "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman?
If we define a figure of speech as figurative language, the poem includes metaphor and personification. In Whitman's 1865 poem, Whitman metaphorically compares late president Abraham Lincoln to the...
Walt Whitman
What are some traits of Walt Whitman's poetic style?
Walt Whitman's poetic style may be best described as innovative and unconventional. Whitman constructed his poems according to his own rules. His lines vary in length but are often quite long and...
Walt Whitman
Interpret the poem “Had I the Choice” by Walt Whitman and discuss its use of similes, metaphors, personification, and...
In “Had I the Choice” by Walt Whitman, the speaker begins with an imaginary scenario. He thinks about what would happen if he had the choice to “tally” the world's greatest poets, to “limn” or...
Walt Whitman
What is the tone, imagery, metaphor, simile, alliteration, hyperbole, and a prefix or suffix used in "I hear America...
The poetic/literary devices (such as tone, imagery, metaphor, simile, alliteration, hyperbole and prefix or suffix) of the poem “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman include: Free verse: This...
Walt Whitman
I Sit And Look Out Summary
As the previous educator mentions, the poem is a catalog of all of the cruelties and acts of meanness that human beings inflict upon one another. Whitman's narrator makes note of the pain of former...
Walt Whitman
What is the literal interpretation and the symbolic interpretation of Walt Whitman's "After the Sea-Ship"?
The literal reading and interpretation of Walt Whitman’s “After the Sea-Ship” is a very detailed description of the impact that a sailing vessel has on the ocean. In characteristically lush and...
Walt Whitman
What does "While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring" mean in "O Captain, My Captain" by Walt...
You are completely right in focusing on the way in which this poem compares and contrasts the victory of the people with the death of their leader. This is the big contrast that drives the poem....
Walt Whitman
What did Whitman mean when he wrote “I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best”?
This quote is an expression of he spiritual connection of the poet to all people and things. When he says he is as bad as the worst and as good as the best, he means that he contains within himself...
Walt Whitman
How would you describe Whitman's poetic voice?
Walt Whitman’s poetic voice displays a number of memorable and characteristic features, including the following: self-confidence plain-spokenness enthusiasm celebration joy idealism patriotism, but...
Walt Whitman
What does Whitman mean by "He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher" in "Song of Myself"? ...
This quote is from Whitman's poem "Song of Myself", and it means that there is great honor for the teacher when his students manage to surpass him. This is made more clear in the stanza as a...
Walt Whitman
O Captain My Captain Theme
The overarching theme is the death of Abraham Lincoln. His death heralded not only the end of the Civil War (Whitman's original motivation for writing "Song of Myself" was, according to Whitman...
Walt Whitman
What is the tone, mood, rhythm, and the conflict of "O Captain! My Captain!"?
First of all, this poem is an elegy. Disillusioned with President Pierce, Whitman felt that he had found an ideal in Abraham Lincoln. When Lincoln was shot after the North's success in the Civil...
Walt Whitman
What is the theme of "On the Beach at Night Alone"?
In “On the Beach at Night Alone,” as elsewhere in his work, Whitman muses on the ultimate unity of being. Although on the surface there is great diversity in the created world, in actual fact there...
Walt Whitman
What is the theme of the poem "Miracles" by Walt Whitman? And how is it related to idealism and truth in life?
The theme of Walt Whitman's poem "Miracles" is that, although we usually associate the word 'miracle' with an object or event which provokes a sense of wonder, in fact, all of existence, everything...
Walt Whitman
What are the implications of this line for the reader, "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you"?
The line "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you" appears at the beginning of the famous poem "Song of Myself," an integral part of the collection Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. In...
Walt Whitman
What is the message of "O Captain! My Captain!"?
The poem was a tribute to Abraham Lincoln, who had been assassinated in 1865, the year in which the poem was written. The poem is divided into three stanzas. The first stanza begins in a...
Walt Whitman
In "I celebrate myself, and sing myself," what does Walt Whitman celebrate? A) His detachment and individuality....
This is Song of Myself, from Whitman's Leaves of Grass. You see a lot of nature imagery in the poem because it is considered an example of romanticism. Further, there are elements of...
Walt Whitman
"The spotted hawk swoops by" completes Whitman's poem, "Song Of Myself." What do lines 7-16 suggest about the theme...
Whitman brings his epic masterpiece to a close with section 52. However, if we have learned anything from the poet, there is no true close. Fittingly, the poem ends on a fifty-second section, much...
Walt Whitman
In "O Captain! My Captain" by Walt Whitman, what does the ship symbolize and what message does it give the reader?
There is a familiar metaphor that is germane to this elegiac poem; namely, the ship of state. The lines 19-20 The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;From fearful trip, the...
Walt Whitman
Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing” showcases a catalog of Americans singing. What are these Americans...
Throughout Walt Whitman's poem "I Hear America Singing," he catalogs various people celebrating their lives as they are engaged in their daily tasks. Whitman showcases carpenters, masons,...
Walt Whitman
Analyze the following poem: Walt Whitman - "A child said, What is the grass?"
To some extent this poem echoes the tone and themes of some of Whitman's other poems, such as "A Carol of Harvest," that explore the sad truths of war. There is a sense of defeat and loss in much...
Walt Whitman
Justify the title of the poem "The Rain" by Walt Whitman.
The complete title of this poem is "The Voice of the Rain". Written by Whitman in 1885 as part of his anthology of poems Leaves of Grass, the poem is a conversation between the author or narrator...
Walt Whitman
What is the effect of long sets of repetitions in Walt Whitman's poems? Walt Whitman
Like many poets, Whitman uses repetition to emphasize particular themes and ideas that drove both his thought and his art. For example, in the poem of "I Hear America Singing," Whitman's...
Walt Whitman
Why does Walt Whitman in "I Sit and Look Out" sit and remain a silent observer? "See, hear, and am silent"
In the poem, Whitman describes various people suffering horrible misery in different forms. However, as he describes them, he doesn't judge, get involved, make commentary, or pass some sort of...
Walt Whitman
IN THE POEM "I HEAR AMERICA SINGING" WHAT ARE SUM REPETITION OF PHRASES AND REPETITON OF SENTENCE PATTERNS?
The word "singing" is repeated quite often in the poem as Whitman discusses various people—workers in different occupations and activities—as he celebrates all individuals and types of work they do...
Walt Whitman
How does Whitman develop the theme of "There Was a Child Went Forth"?
Walt Whitman’s poem "There Was a Child Went Forth" portrays a young boy as he ages and gains awareness. The changes that occur as he grows up are shown in relationship to his explorations of his...
Walt Whitman
What two things does Whitman compare in "A Noiseless Patient Spider"?
Quite simply, he compares a spider, in the midst of weaving its web, with the narrator's soul. "A Noiseless Patient Spider" was included in the 1891-92 Leaves of Grass in a cluster called...
Walt Whitman
Why is free verse an appropriate form for Whitman’s poems?
It’s hard to imagine Whitman writing in anything other than free verse, a form that he largely invented. Partly, this is because of his subject matter, which is nothing less than the totality of...
Walt Whitman
In the poem "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman, is he romanticizing or idealizing the workers?
One of Whitman's most powerful elements in Whitman's "I Hear America Singing" is his belief that the American fabric is composed of working individuals. There might be a bit of Romanticism or...
Walt Whitman
How would you compare the themes in the poetry of Whitman with the poetry of Dickinson?
Though both speak of the themes of self and death, Dickinson focuses more on a philosophical exploration of the elusive realities of these themes, while Whitman focuses more on a celebration of...
Walt Whitman
In "Come Up From the Fields Father," how do the family members know that the letter contains bad news?
We are never actually told how it is that the family, and the mother in particular, knows that the letter contains bad news. What we are told is that the mother has a strange premonition that the...
Walt Whitman
What is Walt Whitman's greatest contribution to American literature? What is Walt Whitman's greatest contribution to...
This is a difficult question. Whitman's short, rhyming poem "O Captain! My Captain" is probably his most widely read piece in high school classrooms, but Song of Myself is almost certainly his most...
Walt Whitman
What is the theme for the poem "A Sight In Camp In The Daybreak Gray And Dim"?
Walt Whitman expresses war’s destructive nature with an underlying religious connotation in his poem “A Sight In Camp In the Daybreak Gray and Dim.” As the poem’s narrator walks into a dim, gray...
Walt Whitman
O Me O Life Meaning
Whitman's "O Me! O Life!" is a poem of contrasts and, ultimately, a statement about the humble but irrepressible value of life. The poem presents the first stanza as a question, which essentially...
Walt Whitman
The speaker in "Song of Myself" observes and participates in five American scenes. For the scenes other than the one...
The scenes you refer to are, I assume, the episodes at the end of the section about heroism. Whitman says, “I understand the large hearts of heroes, / The courage of present times and all times.”...
Walt Whitman
To whom does Whitman refer when he speaks of “My Captain,” and what “fearful trip” has been concluded in the poem "O...
In his famous poem "O Captain, My Captain," Walt Whitman is referring to Abraham Lincoln. The "fearful trip" which has just concluded is the American Civil War. Walt Whitman, who had lived in...
Walt Whitman
What are some key themes in Walt Whitman's poetry?
I think that Whitman was something of a mystic in that he saw all of us as part of the whole; but it was the democratic whole. He saw himself as the poet that Emerson called for; Emerson saw him...
Walt Whitman
How does the tone change throughout the poem "O Captain! My Captain!"?
The tone of "O Captain! My Captain!" does not so much change over the course of the poem as it maintains a tension between exultation and melancholy throughout its three stanzas. In the first...
Walt Whitman
What are the literary devices in section 6, 20, 46, 50, 51 and 52?
Whitman's main literary device in Leaves of Grass (1855-87), which appears in nearly every section of the poem, is metaphor or simile, a characteristic of Whitman's poetic style. In addition,...
Walt Whitman
What is the theme of Walt Whitman's poem "Reconciliation"?
One major theme of the poem is revealed by the one-word title: reconciliation. The speaker refers to it as "Word over all, beautiful as the sky!" Reconciliation, then, the action of restoring...
Walt Whitman
What is a summary of Gods, a poem written by Walt Whitman?
What I'll do is I'll go stanza by stanza, identifying the main message within each, and then look at how each ties together at the end. Lover divine and perfect Comrade, / Waiting content,...
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman has been called the poet of democracy and freedom. Discuss and give examples from his poetry to support...
Whitman wrote poem to democracy. He wrote about individuality, the beauty of the democratic struggle, of the unifying egalitarian impulses of American democracy...and he loved his fellow Americans...
Walt Whitman
How does Whitman's poetry engage with the Civil War, specifically "Song of Myself" and "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"?
Walt Whitman engages with the Civil War in a number of places, most specifically in his "Drum Taps" poems. However, the Civil War loomed large in much of his poetry, both before and after it...
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman is often considered to be a larger-than-life poet, writing expansive lines and embracing the whole of...
In Whitman's preface to Leaves of Grass, he states the following: "The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. In the history of the earth hitherto the largest and most stirring...
Walt Whitman
What are some similarities and differences between the poems: "When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer," "O Captain! My...
One the face of it, these would seem to be very different poems. “Astronomer” is a poem about how nature and intuition is superior to academic knowledge; “I Hear America Singing” is a celebration...
Walt Whitman
Who are the "singers" in Walt Whitman's poem "I Hear America Singing"?
Those who "sing" in Whitman's poems are those who are the defining elements of the basis in America. Each particular part of America has a song to sing. In this praising of America's...
Walt Whitman
How can Whitman and Dickinson be considered Romantic poets?
While Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson came to prominence at the end of the Romantic/Transcendentalist movement, they both share aspects of the Romantic writers. First and foremost, they both share...
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