8.2　课后习题答案

1．Why is the pairing of Whitman and Dickinson in this chapter a study in contrast?

Key: Because, on the one hand, they lived in same time and were two major poets in the late 19th century. The greatness of both poets is well established today and they prove to be the genuine precursors to the most serious modem American poetry.

On the other hand, they also had their opposite characteristics, which form striking contrasts. The two are of entirely different visions, styles and personalities. Whitman desired to be a public poet and confidently addressed the public in his poetry. But during his lifetime he lost a significant part of the public who found him distasteful in certain respects. Dickinson, however, was private to the extent of being a recluse. Scarcely any of her poems were published in her lifetime but won appreciation and recognition after her death.

2．There is a significant amount of scholarship in China regarding Whitman’s in uence on Guo Moruo, particularly the latter’s Goddess. Based on your own reading of Whitman and Guo and some scholarly essays, write an essay discussing the extent to which Whitman’s poetry has been an in uence on Guo.

Key: Whitman’s poetry made a huge impact on Chinese new poetry in the May Fourth Movement, especially on Guo Moruo. From Guo Moruo’s translations and Guo’s own early poetry that was modeled after Whitman, we will be able to feel, albeit vicariously, the sweeping power of Whitman’s rhythm and scope.

3．What is the self-portrait of Whitman in his Preface to Leaves of Grass and in his photo? Is this image reflected in his poetry? In what sense is Whitman’s self-portrait also a fitting image of the new nationhood of the United States? Discuss with textual evidence.

Key: Whitman introduced himself as “Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos, / Disorderly fleshy and sensual … eating drinking and breeding.”

The Preface continued to promote the nationalist enthusiasm characteristic of the time. “The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetic nature,” declared Whitman with confidence, if not with some exaggeration. “The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem Here at last is something in the doings of man that corresponds with the broadest doings of the day and night. Here is not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations.”

From the poems included in this collection (the longest being “Song of Myself”), we find a poet who is a fervent advocate for equality and democracy, a poet celebrating the people in villages and cities of America, a poet in love with a Nature embodying the Over-Soul, and a poet who expressed the pleasures of sex and the sensuality of the body.

Whitman openly celebrates the “body electric”, the sexual organs, and the act of sex. He was one of the first poets to write about masturbation, female eroticism, homosexuality, and the anguish of sexual desire being repressed.

4．What was the controversy surrounding the publication of Whitman’s poetry? What is the spiritual affinity between Emerson and Whitman?

Key: Although Whitman’s poetry is full of genius, the first edition of Leaves of Grass met with quite a few negative comments. Longfellow and Lowell, two poets who thought themselves guardians of the moral conventions, wanted to have the sexually frank wordings deleted from Whitman’s poetry. One London magazine commented that Leaves of Grass proved that the field of American literature was badly in need of weeding. A London newspaper said that Whitman should be publicly flogged.

In the midst of the negative reception, Emerson wrote Whitman an enthusiastic letter. The letter focused on the health-affirming and fortifying effects of Whitman’s poetry, and said to the effect that the organic whole of Whitman’s poetry deserved endorsement from a Transcendentalist writer. Whitman not only got encouragement from the letter. He passed it on to his friend Charles A. Dana who printed it in the New York Tribune. Emerson’s words changed the tone of the debate.

5．A free-spirited and passionate persona emerges in Whitman’s poems. What is this unconventional “self” like?

Key: This “self” speaks lyrically and, when needed, colloquially (using words like ‘yawp’ or “armpits” that other poets would avoid). He is boastful. He is democratic. His “self” is open-ended and all-inclusive, although he does sound mildly narcissistic. This inclusiveness is, in Whitman’s own words, an “all” feeling.

6．With “Song of Myself’ as the example, discuss why this poetic self is a new version of Emerson’s vision of the self. Review Chapter 6.

Key: Whitman’s poetry could have been written in support of those of Emerson’s theories as expressed in “The Poet.” Emerson, if we recall, favors a poet’s insight and wisdom before the technical considerations of poetry. Poetry, according to Emerson, emerges organically from the poet’s own growth. Whitman lived by that principle to the extent that his soul and the body became living materials for his poetry.

Furthermore, the organic principle by Emerson also means that poet makes language to suit his internal processes. Emerson once put it well: “For it is not meters but a meter-making argument that makes a poem.”

Also like what Emerson had hoped, Whitman the language-maker found poetic material in the common, familiar American daily life everywhere. His images are concrete and American. In his ability to incorporate the senses and the body, it may be said that Whitman went further than Emerson.

7．Explain how Whitman turns the mourning of President Lincoln’s death into an attribute to the land and people of America in “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Discuss Whitman’s use of symbols and his other stylistic features.

Key: “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” (1865) was occasioned by President Abraham Lincoln’s tragic death and the subsequent nation-wide mourning.

Whitman believed that “An individual is as superb as a nation when he has the qualities which make a superb nation” and in this eyes, Lincoln was precisely such an individual. He wrote the poem in such a way that it is more than an elegy paying tribute to the passing of a great man. It is in fact a song devoted to the rising nation, the land of America and common American people all typified by Lincoln the national hero.

The panoramas of American things and scenes reinforce this nationalist theme. On the other hand, as a “chant of [the] soul,” the poem also transcends the boundaries of American nationalism as it transcends time and space, finally bringing home the more universal theme of the “dark mother” of us all—death.

8．Comparing the life of Whitman with that of Emily Dickinson, what do you realize about the conditions for women in 19th century America?

Key: Whitman enriched his life experiences during his lifetime; although he didn’t receive too much formal education, he taught himself by experiencing. He began working as an office boy at the age of 11. When he was older, he served in various editorial capacities for newspapers in the New York area. Twice he interrupted his editorial work to teach school.

Emily Dickinson received good education, but she didn’t work as much as Whitman, partly because she was in frail health most of her life, and also because that she chose to live in seclusion.

We can see that in the 19th century, women were not encouraged to show up in the public or work outside. It seemed that to some extent, women were protected well, but accordingly, there were little chances for women to get developed.

9．In what sense is Dickinson linked with Transcendentalism?

Key: Dickinson’s link with Transcendentalism can be seen primarily in her defense of individualism and her inward search for the spiritual light. She is the kind of individualist who, like Emerson wrote in “Self-Reliance,” is “a nonconformist … [and does not easily] capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.”

10．What poems illustrate Dickinson’s individualism?

Key: Many poems of Dickinson illustrate individualism, such as “The Soul selects her own Society”, “I dwell in Possibility”, “A Thought went up my mind today” and so on. “I dwell in Possibility” could be more meaningfully read in tandem with “They shut me up in Prose”. Also, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” is a playful variation of the same theme.

11．What are some of the most noticeable stylistic features in Dickinson’s poems?

Key: Readers of Dickinson will immediately notice the visual appearance of her poems: short phrases and words separated and joined by dashes. It is such pauses that create a highly individualized and flexible rhythm and convey the poet’s vision.

The dashes convey a sense of authenticity, as if they were part of a declaration of independence or a personalized seal on a painting. The compactness of expression suggests mental vigilance. The spontaneity of words brings connotative freshness.

12．Dickinson is well known for her poetic meditations on dying and death. What is so moving in such meditations? Select two suitable poems and discuss this question.

Key: Dying and death is ultimate destination of humankind, and no one can escape from it. After people come to this world, they are approaching dying and death.

Often death is portrayed as a state of transition leading to a state of peaceful and eternal afterlife. Take, for instance, “Because I could not stop for Death” or “I had no time to Hate”.

From a psychoanalytical perspective, Dickinson may have written these poems in order to work out her own fear about death. In the process towards a general acceptance of the inevitability of death, there are always moments which are not at all comfortable, especially in poems such as “The Bustle in a House” and “The Last Night She lived” that depict the loss of her loved one.

13．Even though Emily Dickinson introduces tormenting suffering into her poetry (not unlike Melville and Poe), there is nonetheless a sense of triumph of the human spirit. Which poem could help you illustrate this point?

Key: Although Emily Dickinson introduces tormenting suffering into her poetry, a sense of triumph often emerges in the midst of these struggles.

“Success is counted sweetest” is a good example and will illustrate this point.