Preparing for Walt Whitman

For the past few days, we've taken a break from new readings.  Wednesday we went over the new assignment and the structure of the final.  (Note: the structure of the final will be the same as the structure of the midterm.  The content, of course, is different.)  Today (Friday) we began putting together our study guide.  See this link: http://en202.blogspot.com/2018/04/individual-works-pt-1.html 

Next Friday we will return to the study guide, but for Monday we will look at some new readings.  Two are inspired by Walt Whitman, the "father" of modern American poetry.  (At any rate, he is a key figure.)  Three are by Whitman himself and were in his book Leaves of Grass.

I can't resist assigning Sherman Alexie's "Defending Walt Whitman": https://web.archive.org/web/20060615052432/http://home.earthlink.net/~jandsgordon/Poems/whitman.htm   Or Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California," perhaps one of his least typical poems: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47660/a-supermarket-in-california  I have to include some Whitman: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/noiseless-patient-spider    Since this is the weekend, I am assigning "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45470/crossing-brooklyn-ferry  But I want to include Whitman's elegy to Abraham Lincoln: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45474/o-captain-my-captain

Here are a few questions that will help with the paper on poetry:

-- Which question will you respond to for this paper?  Why?

-- Which poem is the most poetic to you?  Why?

-- Which poem is the least?  Why?

-- How will research help you write this paper?


These questions will help you study for the exam on May 7:

-- Choose one of the poems we haven't written up study guides for.  (See this link for ideas: http://en202.blogspot.com/2018/04/individual-works-pt-1.html)  Why is this poem significant?  What could I ask about this poem on the final?

-- Choose one of the poems we have written up study guides for.  What would you add to this study guide?

-- What have you learned so far about the sonnet?

-- What have you learned so far about free verse?

-- What have you learned so far about persona poems or poems written in another person's voice?

-- What have you learned so far about a poem's speaker?

-- What have you learned so far about a dramatic monologue?

-- How would you define poetry?  Why?

Now I'll finish with questions that pertain to individual poems, the ones by Shakespeare, Bishop, Levine, Whitman, Ginsberg, and Alexie.

-- What can a female poet or female reader learn from Whitman?  Why?

-- What can a male poet or male reader learn from Whitman?  Why?

-- What challenges you when you read free verse (Whitman, Bishop, Levine, Ginsberg, and Alexie)? Why?

-- What challenges you when you read more traditional verse (Whitman, Shakespeare)?  Why?

-- Discuss the impact of line length on free verse (Whitman, Bishop, Levine, Ginsberg, and Alexie -- choose two).

-- Does free verse encourage  poets to focus on language?  Why?  Why not?

-- Does free verse encourage poets to focus on emotion?  Why?  Why not?

-- Do any of our poems for Monday have a plot?  If so, why?  How does that affect your reading of it?

-- Do any not seem to have a plot?  If so, why?  Discuss the impact of the lack of plot.

-- Compare Whitman's free verse to his more traditional poem "O Captain!  My Captain!"

-- What do you know about Abraham Lincoln and his assassination?  What role did he play in the United States?

-- Compare Bishop's "Crusoe in England" (free verse) to "One Art" (villanelle).

-- Sherman Alexie also wrote a villanelle: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/dangerous-astronomy  Compare/contrast it and his free verse poem "Defending Walt Whitman."

-- "A Supermarket in California" is probably Allen Ginsberg's most conventional poem.  "America" is probably more typical: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49305/america-56d22b41f119f  Compare/contrast the two poems.

-- How might Whitman have influenced Allen Ginsberg's "America"?

I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say!