ENGL 11Realism, Regionalism, and

Naturalism

Warm-UpPoetry Workshop

Walt Whitman Poetry

Warm-Up

When you think of the word American, what images come to mind? Why?

Review your list. Based on the images, how do you define American?

A Growing America• In 1783, the new country was a group of 13

new states clustered along the Atlantic coastline.•By 1855, America had grown to 30 states

that stretched across the continent and was rapidly moving toward industrialization and urbanization.• It was a diverse country with people coming

in from all over the world.

Diversity

• It was America’s diversity that fascinated Whitman.•He saw America as the greatest nation that ever

was, and it was great because it was a “melting pot” of skilled, hard-working people from everywhere in the world.

Poetry WorkshopWhile we read, add to your notes.

ENGL 11Realism, Regionalism, and

Naturalism

Warm-UpPoetic Form Quiz

Walt Whitman Poetry ContinuedCSET

Warm-Up

Review your notes from yesterday’s class. Then:3 – List three new ideas or concepts introduced2 – List two images Whitman used in his poem1 – Define one new term

Poetic Form QuizDefine the following terms in your own words. You may use your notes, you may not use the book!

Free Verse• Free verse is Whitman's expression of the

democratic concepts of a vast diverse America• "What we call poems." he wrote, "are

merely pictures." • The "real poems," he insisted, "are the men

and women in all the variety of human experience."

Free Verse

Whitman uses several poetic devices to create rhythm in his poems• Catalog – using frequent lists of people, places, and things• Repetition – repeated words or phrases at the beginning of lines• Parallelism – ideas in the same grammatical form

“A Noiseless Patient Spider” and“Beat! Beat! Drums!”While we read, think about the tone and structure of each poem.

Tone CSET

Tone is the writer’s attitude toward his or her subject.

Select one of Whitman’s poems and in a one paragraph CSET response, discuss the tone of the poem.

HomeworkRead and take notes on “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calveras County” by Twain. The text is already posted on the class documents page.