SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY
What is a vigil? Was Whitman ever in battle? Does he mean himself
speaking? Was the boy really his son? Is the man's calmness a sign that
he does not care? Why does he call the vigil "wondrous" and "sweet"?
What does he think about the next life? Read the poem over slowly and
thoughtfully to yourself, or aloud to some one: How does it make you
feel?
Can you see any reason for calling Whitman a great poet? Has he
broadened your idea of what poetry may be? Read, if possible, in John
Burroughs's book on Whitman, pages 48-53.
EXERCISES
Re-read the _Warble for Lilac-Time_. Can you write of the signs of fall,
in somewhat the same way? Choose the most beautiful and the most
important characteristics that you can think of. Try to use color-words
and sound-words so that they make your composition vivid and musical.
Compare the _Warble for Lilac-Time_ with the first lines of Chaucer's
_Prologue_ to the _Canterbury Tales_. With Lowell's _How Spring Came in
New England_.
THEME SUBJECTS
A Walk in the Woods
A Spring Day
Sugar-Making
My Flower Garden
The Garden in Lilac Time
The Orchard in Spring
On a Farm in Early Summer
A Walk on a Summer Night
Waiting for Morning
The Stars
Walt Whitman and his Poetry
COLLATERAL READINGS
Poems by Whitman suitable for class reading:--
On the Beach at Night
Bivouac on a Mountain Side
To a Locomotive in Winter
A Farm Picture
The Runner
I Hear It was Charged against Me
A Sight in Camp
By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame
Song of the Broad-Axe
A Child said _What is the grass?_ (from _A Song of Myself_)
The Rolling Earth (Selections from Whitman) W.
Pages:
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137