Description
Your response should be one to two pages, double-spaced (no more than 600
words).
For your first response, identify a technical feature of Whitman’s poetry that
interests you. For instance, Whitman’s use of the comprehensive list; his use of
parallel structures (including inversions within parallels, in which he negates a
quality or attribute he has just listed); his use of repetition (especially
anaphora); his unusually specific vocabulary (in terms of natural objects; or
phrenology); his use of “quartets,” either verbal or adjectival (“hankering,
gross, mystical, nude”).
First, describe this technical feature, providing your sense of how it works and
including examples. Pay attention to how this feature summons or disperses
energy in the poem. Next, give a sense of why this feature interests you – what
attracts you to its use in Whitman’s poetry.