Romanticism to Realism Test Review
Walt Whitman – Questions 519
1. Whitman compares the speaker’s soul to a spider that is building a web.
2. The drums and bugles call churchgoers, scholars, bridegrooms, farmers, city
dwellers (sleepers, shoppers, talkers) singers and lawyers to action.
3. Don’t listen to anti-war or timid voices.
4. In “I Hear America Singing,” Whitman’s America is dominated by manual
workers; today, many people work in service industries. In “Song of Myself,”
America is mainly agricultural; today, cities and suburbs dominate the country. In
“Beat! Beat! Drums!” Whitman assumes that war will rally the nation; today, war
often divides the nation.
5. Manual labor is honorable, necessary, and valuable; the soul is individualistic but
united with the cosmos; he is expansive and energetic; war is a noble common
cause.
6. The metaphor “the flag of my disposition” (line 16) suggests a display of life and
hope; “the handkerchief of the Lord” (line 17) suggests a gift of God’s love; “a
child” (line 20) suggests possibility, promise, and innocence; “a uniform
hieroglyphic” (line 21) suggests equality and fraternity among all people; and “the
beautiful uncut hair of graves” (line 25) suggests the cycle of life and death.
7. “A Noiseless Patient Spider”:images: isolation, detachment, and striving; mood:
somber. The overall impact is of quiet contemplation. “Beat! Beat! Drums!”:
images: drums, bugles, people having civilian life; mood: martial enthusiasm. The
overall impact is of noise and activity.
8. The democratic ideals in Whitman’s Preface reflect “I Hear America Singing.”
His reference to grass and earth reflects “Song of Myself.” His use of cataloging
and parallelism, his reference to unrhymed poetry, and his equation of people with
poetry reflect his poems in general.
9. Because free verse really has no rules, it is an appropriate form to capture
Whitman’s individualistic views on America and life.
10. He urges an individualistic, unconventional way of approaching life. He
encourages the position in “I Hear America Singing,” where he values working
people over wealthy people; in “Song of Myself” he expects the reader to answer
questions independently. On the other hand, he honors obedience in “Beat! Beat!
Drums”
Emily Dickinson – Questions 534
1. The speaker has died.
2. The speaker is disdainful of the Majority, fearful of its power, and wary of its
misconceptions.
3. In these lines, the people in the room are preparing themselves for the moment of
the speaker’s death.
4. “Because…”: Death is kindly, gentle, timeless; “My life…”: Parting from loved
ones is a hellish experience; “I heard…”: Dying is mundane but also a prelude to
something greater.
5. “Success…”: Capitalization emphasizes symbols of success; “Much Madness…”:
Capitalization emphasizes the dichotomy between madness and sense; “The
Soul”: Capitalization emphasizes the isolation of the soul.
6. The tone of Dickinson’s poems is thoughtful, quirky, and often deceptively
cheerful.
7. “Success…”: paradox-“Success is counted sweetest / By those who ne’er
succeed”; truth – Failures value success much more than successful people do.
“Much Madness…”; paradox-Much Madness is divinest Sense”; truth-It is hard to
tell the difference between sanity and insanity. “My Life…”;paradox-“For I have
the power to kill, / Without-the power to die”;truth – Human beings, because they
are mortal, have a sanctity that inanimate objects do not.
8. Common elements include the use of dashes, personification, metaphor,
condensed words and syntax, unusual expressions, ambiguous meaning, and a
primary focus upon impressions and feelings.
9. The “corrections” might have caused the poems to lose their power to surprise
and disconcert; metaphors might have been changed, losing their startling
originality; omitting dashes and regularizing rhyme and meter would have caused
the poems to lose their unusual musicality. Student’s choices of details will vary.