SONG OF MYSELF

The poem is written in the _______ tense, from the _______ point of view.

• A. Past tense; third person

• B. Present tense; second person

• C. Present tense; first person

• D. Future tense; first person

What do the following lines reveal about the poet?

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air,

Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,

I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,

Hoping to cease not till death.

• A. He is a fourth-generation native of his birthplace.

• B. He is a recent immigrant.

• C. He is Native American.

• D. He does not know anything about his ancestry.

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Which of the following statements best explains the attitude of the poem?

• A. It is a sad elegy for a lost time in America.

• B. The country is headed toward a brighter future.

• C. Racial harmony can make America into a paradise.

• D. All times and persons are part of one harmonious continuum.

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What is the central idea/theme of this passage?

A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;

How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,

A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,

Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose?

Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,

And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,

Growing among black folks as among white,

Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

• A. Each blade of grass is the resurrection of a human soul.

• B. Children are born in a state of ignorance and must be taught.

• C. Grass is an example of how even the most common things closely examined reveal mysterious significance.

• D. Because grass can grow in so many places and conditions it is available to everyone.

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CCSS.RL.11-12.2

Which line from the text best supports the correct answer to Question 5?

• A. “I do not know what it is anymore than he.”

• B. “Or I guess the grass itself is a child.”

• C. “And now it seems to me the beautiful hair of graves.”

• D. “Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,”

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Which of these inferences about the narrator is best supported by the following section of the poem?

I resist anything better than my own diversity

Breathe the air but leave plenty after me,

And am not stuck up, and am in my place.

(The moth and the fish-eggs are in their place,

The bright suns I see and the dark suns I cannot see are in their place,

The palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its place.)

• A. He feels superior to others

• B. He would identify with other people if they behaved better.

• C. He does not consider himself superior or different to any other person.

• D. He feels that racial differences are a block to common understanding.

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Which line from the section best supports the correct answer to Question 7?

• A. “The palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its place.”

• B. “Breathe the air but leave plenty after me”

• C. “I resist any thing better than my own diversity”

• D. “And am not stuck up, and am in my place.”

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What meaning of transpire most closely matches the meaning in the following excerpt?

Tenderly will I use you curling grass,

It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,

It may be if I had known them I would have loved them,

It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mothers’ laps,

And here you are the mothers’ laps.

• A. happen

• B. come about

• C. unfold

• D. emerge

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Place the following quotations in the order that they appear in the poem.

I celebrate myself, and I sing myself,

Not I, not anyone else, can travel that road for you.

If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.

Missing me one place search another,/ I stop somewhere waiting for you.

• FIRST

• SECOND

• THIRD

• FOURTH

Place the following quotations in the order that they appear in the poem.

I celebrate myself, and I sing myself,

Not I, not anyone else, can travel that road for you.

If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.

Missing me one place search another,/ I stop somewhere waiting for you.

• FIRST

• SECOND

• THIRD

• FOURTH

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