Online version of poem, in case you don't have the book yet
Another online version of poem
Background of the author
Class Discussion Questions:
If you seriously think about your experience reading this poem, and you are not too embarrassed to admit that you struggled, I am sure you will have questions of your own. Those are fair game as well. Please raise them in your group and call me over for help. The point is the struggle. I want you to grapple with confusion and uncertainty. Success in this course is about embracing the struggle.
The questions below will help you get started:
1. How would you describe the speaker in Song of Myself? Come up with THREE strong adjectives, and identify quotes in the poem to support your choices. The speaker is not the author, though the two might have some things in common.
2. What are the values of the speaker in this poem, and how does he feel about his audience? List THREE virtues or ideas that he upholds or defends and give examples of how he treats us a readers.
3. How does the speaker feel about our ability to read and understand the meaning of poetry? Find the quotes that show his attitude about "reading" (esp. sections 2 and 19).
4. Is "song of myself" a phrase that expresses egotism or humility? Identify some quotes that shed light on this ambiguity (see the end of section 33). Where does the speaker sound egotistical? Where does he demonstrate humility?
5. What do we learn about the speaker when we hear him try to answer the child's question "What is the grass?" (section 6) How does this section help us understand what we must do to read this poem (and live) responsibly? Look up "negative capability" in the literary terms.
6. How can you tell that this poem is just as much about reading (listening) as it is about writing (singing)? Find quotes that helped you see this idea. What kind of activity is reading? What kind of activity is writing?
7. If you had to describe the shape of this poem to someone who had never read it, what words would you use to help him picture it? Be specific and give examples.
8. The speaker is clearly open and accepting even to opposite extremes, but are there times when he passes judgment? That is, does he value some things more than others? Find some quotes that show his commitment.
9. Can this speaker sing of himself, really? On a related note, can we permit this speaker to contradict himself? Why or why not?
10. If the speaker is "not a bit tamed" and "untranslatable," how are we to understand what he is trying to communicate?
Quotes to think about in groups:
-- from Song of Myself:
"The scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than prayer"
"To be in any form, what is that?"
"I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd,
I stand and look at them long and long."
"I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable.
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world."
-- from "Preface to Leaves of Grass":
"He is the arbiter of the diverse and he is the key. He is the equalizer of his age and land . . . he supplies what wants supplying and checks what wants checking" (6).
"His brain is the ultimate brain. He is no arguer . . . he is judgment. He judges not as the judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing. As he sees the farthest he has the most faith. His thoughts are the hymns of the praise of things" (7).
"This is what you shall do: . . . read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul" (10)
"The greatest poet does not moralize or make applications of morals . . . he knows the soul" (13).
"You shall stand by my side and look in the mirror with me" (14).
"The great poets are also to be known by the absence in them of tricks and by the justification of perfect personal candor. . . . All faults my be forgiven of him who has perfect candor" (22).
"A great poem is no finish to a man or woman but rather a beginning. Has any one fancied he could sit at last under some due authority and rest satisfied with explanations and realize and be content and full?" (29).
"The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it" (33).
Recurring themes:
poetry: pp. 25, 31, 38-39, 42, 58, 66-67
reading: pp. 24-25, 27-28, 31, 36-37, 60, 62, 64, 67
form: pp. 25, 27, 34, 43, 62, 65-66
