Subject Areas |
Art and Culture
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Visual Arts |
History and Social Studies
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U.S. History - Civil War and Reconstruction |
Literature and Language Arts
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American |
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Biography |
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Poetry |
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Time Required |
| Four or five classroom periods
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Skills |
| Poetry writing
Poetry interpretation
Analysis of primary documents
Collaboration
Comparison and contrast
Media analysis |
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Additional Data |
| Date Created: 09/17/02 |
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Date Posted |
| 9/17/2002 |
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Walt Whitman's Notebooks and Poetry: the Sweep of the Universe
"small in theme yet has it the sweep of the universe" —From
Walt Whitman's Notebook page 19 LOC #94
"…no ideas but in things" —From
"Paterson" by William Carlos Williams IntroductionWalt
Whitman sought to create a new and distinctly American form of poetry. As he declared
in Democratic Vistas,
"America has yet morally and artistically originated nothing. She seems singularly
unaware that the models of persons, books, manners, etc., appropriate for former
conditions and for European lands, are but exiles and exotics here…." Whitman
wanted his poetry to explore important ideas with "the sweep of the universe"
(as the Europeans did), but in authentic American situations and settings using
specific details with direct appeal to the individual experience and feeling ("small
in theme"). As is suggested by the second
quotation above, Whitman's ideas and example had a profound influence on subsequent
generations of American writers. But to what extent does Whitman's own poetry
fulfill his stated goal of combining universal themes with the closely rendered
details of personal experience and feeling? In this lesson, students will attempt to answer
that question by working with his words in a variety of media. To help them appreciate
his artistic practice, students will also have an opportunity to compose poetry
modeled on the poet's characteristic method of using the notebooks as a source
of the personal experience and universal themes explored in his poems. Note:
This lesson may be taught either as a stand-alone lesson or as a companion to
the complementary EDSITEment lesson
Walt Whitman to Langston Hughes: Poems for a Democracy. To make this lesson plan more compelling and fascinating for students, teachers should screen the brilliant Whitman episode from the NEH-funded series Visions and Voices (scroll down to "12. Walt Whitman") at the EDSITEment-reviewed site Learner.org. There is a log-in process required to access the actual movie, but the registration is free and provides entree to a wealth of educator resources. Additionally, PBS's "American Experience" has created a special on Walt Whitman from which additional resources can be drawn.
Guiding
Questions:How does Whitman's poetry reflect his
attempt to combine universal themes with the individual experiences and feelings?
How did Whitman use his experiences of the Civil War in his poetry? Learning
Objectives After completing the lessons in this
unit, students will be able to: - Give examples to clarify what Whitman
meant by "small in theme yet has it the sweep of the universe."
- Discuss
some of the different media in which Whitman wrote and compare his work in each.
- Compose an original poem from a student notebook entry.
Preparing to Teach this Lesson- Review
the lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites.
Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary
for student viewing.
- Download the worksheet Whitman's
Notebooks, Whitman's Poetics, available here as a PDF file. Print out and
make an appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class.
- In this lesson, students will work with one specific aspect of Whitman's
poetics: the poet's goal of creating a marriage between universal themes and the
details of individual experience and feeling. The class will discuss a brief statement
from Whitman's Notebook LOC #94 and use that discussion as a basis for comparing
Whitman's A Noiseless,
Patient Spider to William Carlos Williams' To
a Poor Old Woman. Next, students working in groups will analyze and make
connections between a Civil War photograph and a Whitman notebook excerpt, poem,
and prose selection on similar subjects. To enliven their presentation of these
materials, students will rework some Whitman notebook material into poems, to
be read as part of the presentation. Finally, using their own notebook entries
as raw material, students will create a poem from their own experience. Complete
directions for the group activity are found in Part 2,
below.
- For background information on the life and poetry of Walt Whitman,
consult the following EDSITEment resources:
- The EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Memory provides information About
Whitman's Notebooks, including the following excerpts:
In these
typical writer's notebooks, Whitman jotted down thoughts in prose and expressions
in poetry. The earliest examples include journalistic entries with ideas for articles
he might write. His first trial lines for what would soon become part of the 1855
edition of Leaves of Grass appear in an early notebook (LC #80) which bears
an internal date of 1847; it was his habit, however, to use these notebooks over
a number of years, filling in blank pages at will, and the remarkable trial flights
of verse for "Song of Myself" in it are likely to date closer to 1854.
In the Civil War years, he was more apt to carry tiny notebooks in his shirt pocket
in which he took notes about the needs and wants of wounded soldiers whom he visited
and comforted in the hospitals in and near Washington, D.C. In these he noted
what treats a soldier might like on the next visit--raspberry syrup, rice-pudding,
notepaper and pencil--or notes and addresses of family to whom Whitman would then
write in place of the gravely wounded or dead young man. Occasionally he would
also describe scenes on the battlefield, probably from reports from others in
the camps. American
Memory also provides information about Daguerreotypes,
including the following excerpts: [Daguerreotypes] occasionally document
American laborers in the mid-nineteenth century. The subjects of occupational
daguerreotypes pose with the tools of their trade or goods that they have made.
Most occupational daguerreotypes depict tradesmen, such as cobblers, carpenters,
and blacksmiths…
Nineteenth-century paintings, prints, and illustrations
of the American working class often presented idealized and heroicized images.
In contrast, this daguerreotype of a locksmith with his scrawny arms, grave demeanor,
and stained apron provides a different perspective on the nineteenth-century American
tradesman. American
Memory provides information about Civil War photography as well in Taking
Photographs at the Time of the Civil War. - Further information on
William
Carlos Williams is available on the EDSITEment resource Modern
American Poetry and in the biographical entry for William
Carlos Williams on the EDSITEment-reviewed website The
Academy of American Poets.
- For further reading, consult the Recommended
Reading List provided here as a PDF file.
Suggested
Activities
1. "Small in Theme…Universal
in Sweep" 2. Whitman and the
Civil War 3. A Poem Small in
Theme 1. "Small in Theme…Universal
in Sweep" Amid mundane notes including
addresses and information about people he had met, Page
19 of Walt Whitman's Notebook LOC #94, available on the EDSITEment resource
American Memory, includes
this tantalizing fragment: "small in theme yet has it the sweep of the universe."
No explanation accompanies the statement, but it could be interpreted to represent
one idea Whitman had about his poetry—the desire to explore universal themes using
specific, sensory details from his own experience. "A Noiseless, Patient Spider"
is an example of one attempt to do so. After observing a spider constructing a
web, Whitman becomes aware of his "soul… Ceaselessly musing, venturing,… Till
the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere." Read
aloud to the students Whitman's A
Noiseless, Patient Spider, available via a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed
website American Studies at the University
of Virginia. Which details in the poem describe what the spider is doing?
In what ways does the poet see similarities between his soul and the spider? Share
with the class Whitman's statement from Page
19 of Walt Whitman's Notebook LOC #94: "small in theme yet has it the sweep
of the universe." (If students have an interest in seeing the original in Whitman's
hand, share the page image on the computer or by downloading and copying it.)
Would it be accurate to say that "The Noiseless Patient Spider" is "small in theme"?
Does it also have the "sweep of the universe" in it? Now
share with the class William Carlos Williams' poem To
a Poor Old Woman, available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website of The
Academy of American Poets. To use Whitman's term, is this poem also "small
in theme"? What about it is universal? Share the following quote about Williams'
work from The Academy of American Poets' essay
The Modernist Revolution:
Make It New!: William Carlos Williams
wrote in "plain American which cats and dogs can read," to use a phrase of Marianne
Moore. "No ideas but in things, " he proclaimed. In succinct, often witty poems
he presents common objects or events-a red wheelbarrow, a woman eating plums-with
freshness and immediacy, enlarging our understanding of what a poem's subject
matter can be. What did Williams mean when
he said, "No ideas but in things"? If desired, share Williams' famous—and
controversial—poem The
Red Wheelbarrow, available on the EDSITEment resource The
Academy of American Poets. It obviously features a "thing," and it is certainly
small in theme. Is it also universal? In what sense does so much depend upon a
red wheelbarrow? Williams wanted the poem to be simple yet explore an idea. Did
he succeed? 2. Whitman
and the Civil War In this section of the
lesson, students will work with Walt Whitman's words in three different formats—notebooks,
prose, poetry—to deepen their understanding of them and of Whitman's process.
Using Whitman's writing as well as Civil War photographs and poems created from
Whitman notebook entries, student groups are challenged to create a presentation
for the class that demonstrates the connections between the materials they have
analyzed. If desired, begin by sharing some
information about Whitman and the Civil War, such as the following excerpt from
the Biography
of Walt Whitman available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website of The
Academy of American Poets: [Whitman]
traveled to Washington, D.C., in December 1862 to care for his brother who had
been wounded in the war. Overcome by the suffering of the many wounded in Washington,
Whitman decided to stay and work in the hospitals. Whitman stayed in the city
for 11 years. He took a job as a clerk for the Department of the Interior, which
ended when the Secretary of the Interior, James Harlan, discovered that Whitman
was the author of Leaves of Grass, which Harlan found offensive. Harlan
fired the poet. Establish an anticipatory
set by sharing with the class a recruiting
poster for New York's 51st Volunteers (from the Selected
Civil War Photographs Collection on the EDSITEment resource American
Memory), the subject of many of the Whitman notebook pages assigned below.
What impression about Civil War service do you get from this poster? (The poster
does not emphasize idealistic reasons for signing up.) Next,
divide the class into groups limited in size, as follows (note: There can be fewer
students per group and fewer groups than those noted below, if desired or necessary.):
- Hospital Group—3 students
- Washington
During the War, Part I Group—5 students
- Washington During the War,
Part II Group—5 students
- The Fighting Fifty-First, Part I Group—6
students (Note: This group has one of the longer prose pieces.)
- The Fighting
Fifty-First, Part II Group—5 students
- A Hundred Day March Group—7
students (Note: This group has a graphic prose piece.)
The
groups will be assigned the following materials, available on EDSITEment resources:
- Hospital Group
- Washington During the War, Part I Group
- Washington During the War, Part II Group
- The Fighting Fifty-First, Part I Group
- Notebook Pages: Page
97, Page
99, Page
101, Page
103, Page
106, Page
108 (NOTE: If desired, the sample poem for page 107 can be included as part
of the group's poetry reading.)
- Photo(s): Burnside's
Bridge Photo, Confederate
Dead By Fence (Antietam)
- Prose Piece: Battle
of Bull Run, July 1861
- Poem: Calvary
Crossing a Ford on the Electronic
Text Center, University of Virginia Library, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed
website American Studies at the University
of Virginia
- The Fighting Fifty-First, Part II Group
- A Hundred Day March Group
- Photo(s): Falmouth,
Va. Drum corps of 61st New York Infantry
- Prose Piece: A
Glimpse of War's Hell Scenes
- Poems: A
March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown / A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak
Gray and Dim
(Note: All the
notebook entries listed above are from Notebook LOC #94 on Poet
at Work: Recovered Notebooks from the Thomas Biggs Harned Walt Whitman Collection,
available on the EDSITEment resource American
Memory. The photos are from the Selected
Civil War Photographs Collection on American
Memory. Click on any image for additional, larger images. The prose pieces
are from the Complete
Prose Works from the Electronic Text
Center, University of Virginia Library, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed
website American Studies at the University
of Virginia. The poems (unless otherwise noted) are from Leaves
of Grass (1891), available via a link from the EDSITEment resource American
Studies at the University of Virginia.) Student
groups will analyze the assigned photographs, prose pieces, and poems using the
"Media Comparison Chart: Cubing Exercise" on page 1 of the PDF file (see Preparing
to Teach This Lesson, above, for download instructions). The analysis is intended
to help students prepare for presenting these materials to the class and to encourage
them to make connections between the sights Whitman saw during the Civil War,
the prose pieces he wrote, and his poems. When creating a script for their presentation,
students should find useful material in their answers to the cubing exercise.
If you are unfamiliar with cubing, the "Media
Comparison Chart" contains basic instructions. In addition, the "Sample Cubing
Exercise Answers" on pages 2-3 of the PDF file (see Preparing
to Teach This Lesson, above, for download instructions) offer one set of sample
answers for the "Hundred Day March" media. After
the cubing exercise has been completed, students have one more task before working
on their presentations-creating a poem from a Whitman notebook page to be read
aloud as part of the presentation. The poem to be created could be considered
a "found poem" because students can choose to use Whitman's words exactly as they
find them or add and delete as desired, as long as they change the form to poetry,
that is, by working with the length of lines and the places where the lines break.
(Note: In Part 3, below, students will create poems from
their own notebook entry; novice poetry writers should gain confidence when they
discover they can "find" an original poem in their own notebook entry using the
same process.) Model the process for creating
poems from Whitman's notebook by sharing an image of Page
107 from Whitman's Notebook LOC #94, available on the EDSITEment-reviewed
website American Memory.
Give students the chance to read parts of the entry aloud. Can they discern every
word? Probably not. That's okay. In fact, unavoidable misreadings of a few words
and guesses about illegible items can become fortunate accidents in the poem and
reading to be created. Once all of page 107
has been read, share with students the sample poem "The Sixth Battle, September
17th 1862" on page 4 of the PDF
file (see Preparing to Teach This Lesson, above, for
download instructions). In what way is this poem "small in theme"? In what way
is it "universal in sweep"? What choices has the poet made in turning the notebook
page into a poem? Especially note the shortened poetry lines, the addition of
punctuation, the lack of major changes. This poet has chosen to use only words
from the original. Each group member will
tackle one page from Whitman's notebook from which he/she will create a poem using
Whitman's words. The reading of these brief poems will be part of each group's
presentation to the class. The group is responsible for exactly as many notebook
entries as there are group members. After
the groups have completed their analysis of the assigned media, and individual
students have completed their poems, each group should prepare to present its
materials to the class in a way that incorporates reading of the student-created
poems while touching on the assigned photos, prose pieces and Whitman poems to
communicate the connections between them and the impact conveyed by the combined
images and texts. Presentations can be as simple as a brief description of each
item assigned to the group followed by a reading of the student poems, or they
can be more elaborate, with students, for example, writing a narration or brief
skit that allows the presentation of the materials to be part of a dramatic framework.
If desired, the readings could be multimedia (live or online) with the addition
of appropriate music and display of photographs. Groups are encouraged to use
other Civil War photographs from the Selected
Civil War Photographs Collection and/or audio clips from the collection Band
Music of the Civil War Era, both exhibits of the EDSITEment-reviewed website
American Memory.
3. A Poem Small in Theme
Now the students are ready to compose their own poems
with small themes (and, perhaps, universal sweep). Remind students of the spider
in Whitman's poem and the old woman eating plums in Williams's. At home or in
class, have students select a mundane object or event and then write about it
freely, quickly, concretely, and in detail-the facts, just the facts. It would
be best if students could write while (or right after) viewing the object or event.
Students should fill a page or more. The next day in class, students can use their
own or someone else's notes from which to create a "found poem" as they did with
Whitman's notebook page.
Extending the Lesson- Students
can search for and identify other images and words of interest from Whitman's
notebooks using Princeton
University's Searchable Leaves of Grass (1891), a link from the EDSITEment
resource American Studies at the University
of Virginia.
- Students can view construction worker John Doherty reading Whitman, from "Song of Myself" at the Favorite Poems Project,
by clicking on the forward or backward arrows of the image viewing strip. When they get to the image of John Doherty (all images are titled), they can bring up the video by clicking on Doherty's image. They can also peruse the list
of poems submitted to the project for which video readings presently exist.
Consider Whitman's test
of a poem from Notebook 80, page 110:
Test of a poem: How far
it can elevate, enlarge, purify, deepen, and make happy the attribute of the body
and soul of a man. Why do students think any one of these poems was
chosen by someone as a personal favorite? In times of stress, such as after September
11, people often turn to poetry for comfort. Why? Students can conduct their own
favorite poem project. - For another look at the poet's process, students
can view Whitman's own correction of and comments about a published version of
"O Captain, My Captain" through the exhibit Letter
and corrected reprint of Walt Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain" with comments
by author, 9 February 1888 on the EDSITEment resource American
Memory. Consideration of Whitman's famous dirge could also lead to discussion
of the Civil War, Lincoln, and his place in the hearts of the American people.
- Find out about the recovery and preservation process of Whitman's notebooks
on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Memory:
- Learn more about the process of Taking
Photographs at the Time of the Civil War from the Selected
Civil War Photographs Collection on the EDSITEment resource American
Memory.
- Students can explore the special presentation Does
the Camera Ever Lie?, part of the Selected
Civil War Photographs Collection on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Memory. It presents photographs with Alexander Gardner's 1865 narrative. Readers
can scrutinize the photos to determine if Gardner was accurate, and read a professional
analysis. Things are not always what they seem!
- Image
189 of Notebook LOC #94 contains Whitman's notes that formed the basis of
the poem "The Noiseless Spider." Interested students can transcribe the notes
and compare them to the poem as published.
Selected
EDSITEment Websites
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