Success Unit – Test 1 Study Guide
1. What year was Walt Whitman born? 1819
2. Why did Walt Whitman quit school at age 11? To work and support his family
3. At age 17, what did Walt Whitman begin doing? Teaching school
4. What was the title of Walt Whitman’s greatest work that influenced other poets across the world? Leaves of
Grass
5. Why is Walt Whitman considered the “father of free verse”? he was the first to write in free verse
6. What was Walt Whitman called the “Bard of Democracy”? all of his poems were based on the idea of a universal
brotherhood
7. What is the tone of “I Hear America Singing”? celebratory, patriotic, joyful
8. What is the theme of “I Hear America Singing”? celebrating the individual workers who made America great
9. What is the purpose of “I Hear America Singing”? celebrate America’s potential to form a united body who
happily fulfill their purpose through their tasks
10. What does the singing of the workers in “I Hear America Singing” represent? Joyful and satisfied workers
11. Which line from the poem is an example of alliteration?
12. What type of poem is “I Hear America Singing”? free verse
13. Where and when was Langston Hughes born? Joplin, Missouri; 1902
14. What was different about Langston Hughes’s writing? He was the first to write a realistic account of the black
culture
15. What was the name of Langston Hughes’s first book of poetry? Weary Blues
16. What other writer that we have studied this year met Langston Hughes as a young person? Walter Dean Myers
17. What is the best description of tone in “Let America Be America Again”? angry, resentful, frustrated, but hopeful
at the end
18. What is the purpose of “Let America Be America Again”? to be the voice that informs America that not everyone
has the same liberties; there is a problem of inequality that needs to be changed
19. How does the speaker of “Let America Be America Again” identify himself? As all of the groups who feel isolated
from the American Dream
20. Which of the following represents the theme? “America never was America to me.”
21. Find all the examples of metaphor from the poem.
22. How is Langston Hughes’s poetic style in “Let America Be America Again” similar to Walt Whitman’s poetic style
in “I Hear America Singing”? they both list people by their occupations and situations for effect
23. Find all the examples of imagery. “slavery’s scars”
24. Name all the characteristics that the two poems have in common. Love for America
25. Which of the two poems expressed the feeling that America needed to change in order for everyone to achieve
the American Dream? “Let America Be America Again”