Study Questions
1. What great social and political event does Whitman write about in France?

2. What cargo are the “proud black ships” carrying in Year of Meteors?

3. In A Broadway Pageant, the poet describes what event?

4. What kind of birds does the boy observe in Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking?

5. What happens to the female bird in Out of the Cradle?

6. In Out of the Cradle, where is the beach located?

7. Identify the main character in Aboard at a Ship’s Helm?

8. With whom is the child standing in On the Beach at Night?

9. What is the poet doing in On the Beach at Night Alone?

10. How is the sea described in Patroling Barnegat?

Answers
1. Whitman writes about the French Revolution.

2. Some ships are filled with immigrants, and others are filled with gold.

3. Whitman describes a parade down Broadway in Manhattan.

4. The boy observes two mockingbirds on the beach.

5. One day, after she disappears, the male bird sings a lament.

6. The beach is in Paumanok, Long Island, New York.

7. A “young steersman” is the main character of this poem.

8. The child is with her father.

9. He is standing on the beach, observing the night sky.

10. The sea is “high running,” the result of a “wild” storm.