1. Reviewing Collection 3: A Study of Poets
Walt Whitman
and Emily Dickinson

2. Emily Dickinson born Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1830.
an unknown poet (till after her death)
lived a reclusive life

3. Emily Dickinson wrote most of her poetry on small strips of paper
Emily Dickinson wrote most of her poetry on small strips of paper. She would then fold them neatly into little squares and occasionally would give them as small gifts. Ironically, only seven of her poems were actually published during her lifetime. The rest would be discovered after her death.

4. Personification is a kind of metaphor in which something nonhuman is talked about as though it were human.
Love struck me with his arrow.
Justice weighed my case carefully.

5. Heart! We will forget him! by Emily Dickinson

6. You may forget the warmth he gave-- I will forget the light!
Heart! We will forget him! You and I– tonight !
You may forget the warmth he gave-- I will forget the light!
When you have done, pray tell me
That I may straight begin!
Haste! Lest while you’re lagging
I remember him!

7. What is meant by tone?
The attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience

8. This is my letter to the world, That never wrote to me,—
Epigram
This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me,—
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty.
Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see;
For love of her, sweet countrymen,
Judge tenderly of me!

9. Slant Rhyme v. Exact Rhyme
EXACT same syllables same vowels same sounds mine nine fine dine
SLANT some similarities (but not defined) leave love dive leaf

10. Emily Dickinson 1830-1886 I’m nobody! Who are you?
XXVII
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us—
don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
Emily Dickinson

11. Walt Whitman Born and raised in New York (Manhattan)
His poetry broke every rule of traditional poetry
Volume of poetry:
Leaves of Grass (1855)

12. Walt Whitman Mixed reaction to his poetry Emerson/Lincoln loved it
(Many didn’t accept him as a poet)
Emerson/Lincoln loved it
Medic during the Civil War
Themes: Nature, Democracy, Common Man
Introduced Free Verse to America

13. Catalog
Series of images, objects, people, or events (grouped together)

14. Free Verse
Poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme

15. What is style?
Style is the unique way in which an author uses language in a story, poem, or writing. Style is defined by sentence length, diction, and the usage of figurative language and imagery.
E X A M P L E
Walt Whitman’s style is romantic, emotional, and limited in the usage of stanzas, titles, and rhymes.

16. O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead. 5 10

17. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here, Captain! Dear father!
This arm beneath your head,
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

18. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won: Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells, But I, with mournful dread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

19. Alliteration
Repetition of a consonant sound The merciless millionaire made money like mad. Dirty dogs were digging in the garden.

20. Assonance
Repetition of the vowel sound might kite bright fight pain day race payday

21. Onomatopoeia
A word that makes the sound of the action it represents. Telephones ring. Clocks tick. Bees buzz. Thunder booms!

22. Some famous words from Walt Whitman…
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.” “If you done it, it ain't bragging.” “To have great poets, there must be great audiences.”

23. End of Collection 3