Song of Myself by Walt Whitman

Bihar Board Rainbow English Book Class 12 Solutions 
Poem 2 'Song of Myself by Walt Whitman'

Text Book Questions and Answers

B. 1.1. Read the following sentences and write ‘T’ for true and ‘F’ for false statements -

(a) The poet enjoys himself and sings for the self. - T
(b) The speaker is different from others. - T
(c) The poet discards nature’s beauty. - F
(d) Every atom of blood is the same in all human beings. - T
(e) The poet is associated with a particular school of thought. - T
(f) The poet has overcome his greed. - T

B. 1.2. Answer the following questions briefly -

1. Who is the speaker in this poem?
Ans: Walt Whitman, the poet is the speaker of this poem.

2. How old is he?
Ans: He is thirty-seven years old.

3. Why does the speaker use ‘you’ twice?
Ans: The speaker uses ‘you’ twice to press on a similarity of blood in all human beings.

4. What is meant by ‘Nature without check with original energy’?
Ans: This line describes the energy flowing through the poet's body which is unchecked by nature.

5. What is the theme of the poem?
Ans: The theme of the poem is a reflection of individualistic thought. It gives the message of the oneness of human beings.

6. How does the speaker establish a relation between ‘me’ and ‘you’?
Ans: The speaker establishes the relation between ‘me’ and ‘you’ by saying that our parents are the same and our blood is similar.

7. What does he observe in summer?
Ans: He observes a spear of grass in summer.

8. What has formed the speaker’s blood?
Ans: The soil, the air, and his birthplace has formed the speaker’s blood.

9. What does he hope to do?
Ans: He hopes to sing and celebrate himself till his death.

10. What does he want to do with creeds?
Ans: He wants to know the system of thoughts with creeds in abeyance.

11. What does he want to speak about?
Ans: He wants to speak about every hazard in his life.

C. 1. Long Answer Questions -

1. Give a summary of the poem.
Ans: “Song of Myself” is a poem by Walt Whitman. Originally published in 1855, Whitman considerably revised and expanded it over the subsequent decades. In 1881, it was released in its final form as part of the last edition of the collection Leaves of Grass. “The poem is a joyous celebration of the human self in its most expanded, spontaneous, self-sufficient, and all-embracing state as it observes and interacts with everything in creation and ranges freely over time and space. The bard of the poem, speaking in the oracular tones of the prophet, affirms the divinity and sacredness of the entire universe, including the human body, and he asserts that no part of the universe is separate from himself—he flows into all things and in all things. The speaker shows that the union of the self and the body allows for a truly transcendent experience. “Song of Myself” begins with a declaration of universal humanity. Though the poet says that he will narrate the poem as “I,” he assumes certain commonalities between himself and the reader allowing the “I” to stand in for any number of human beings. The poet then goes on to celebrate being alive and in good health. He is happy to be living in the world and working the soil that his father and grandfather before him worked.

2. What similarities does the poet draw between two human beings?
Ans: The poet, Walt Whitman tells something about the similarities between two human beings. The poet wants to say that human beings are the same in many ways as they were born in similar ways. Their blood is the same. Everything is the same in all human beings

3. Explain the line ‘Hoping to cease not till death.’
Ans: The line ‘Hoping to cease not till death’ means the poet Walt Whitman does not want to die. He knows that there are people who quarrelled about religions. He hopes to change the situation through his efforts. There are high thoughts about religious belief in his mind. So, he has expressed such a view in the line “hoping to cease not till death”.

4. Comment on the subjectivism (personal feeling) in the poem?
Ans: The poem “Song of Myself’ is composed by the poet Walt Whitman. He tells about himself in this poem. He never thinks anything wrong about religious beliefs and systems of thought. He becomes very sad when he sees a human being quarrelling with another human being only for religion. But there is nothing to quarrel in these things. He feels like a spear that gives pain to human beings. Also, it gives him pain when he listens about quarrelling people in the same way for religion.

5. Why does the poet not want to bother himself with “Creeds and Schools”
Ans: The poet does not want to bother himself with “Creeds and schools” because he thinks about religious tolerance. His mind is quite free from this problem. He knows that there are different religious beliefs and systems of thoughts in the world. Still, he does not bother himself with it. He knows that everyone is the same in all conditions. Take birth’ from different parents have no difference among them and they are similar in all respects. Their blood is the same.

6. What does the poet mean by ‘Nature without check with original energy’?
Ans: The poet means to say, “nature without check with original energy”, that he believes in good and bad aspects of life and he favours to tell about every danger or fear, which he hopes to acquire through nature without check unrestricted nature and original energy.

C. 3. Composition -

Write a short essay in about 150 words on the following -

(a) Religion does not teach hatred.
Ans: Every individual when born, does not belong to any religion, but immediately after birth, a particular religion recognises him. It is a matter of relief and faith of people belonging to a different religion. A person tends to love and respect his religion. He becomes very possessive about his religion. If people belonging to other religion tries to hurt his sentiments by talking ill of his religion and tries to damage or bring destruction the person gets shattered. He is ready to fight for his religion as he feels that his existence is in danger. He tries to protect his religion from his enemies. But this is something which should be avoided. As every individual is born with religion, one should try to have respect for other religions. All religions must be respected equally. It should be respected by all. All religion teaches you to love your family, your country, and the people. Religion will never teach you to kill people of a different religion. We should regard every human being as our brother. People who fight with others in the name of their religion are not followers of their religion. He tries to misinterpret the teachings of religion. If we want others to respect our religion we should also learn to respect other’s religion.

(b) Life is a grand battle.
Ans: Life is a great challenge. A person with a bold mind and strong body are ready to accept it. He is not being fearful. Life is made up of different problems. It is always and rightly said that life is not a bed of roses. This is very much true. Human beings are all the time putting up great strength to overcome these problems. Right from the time, we are born we are snuggling for survival. Life is a grand battle, this does not mean that the universe is a battlefield and we are the soldiers. Battlefield means it is made up of difficult situation which needs to be handled carefully. We should be like soldiers who are ready to act for any adverse situation and save ourselves. We should not be scared of facing challenges. A person who faces the challenge with a strong will is never shattered out always move ahead in life. These kinds of people become strong mentally, physically, and emotionally. So folks life is a grand battle—face it, win it, rejoice it and try to bring happiness for yourself and your people.

D. Word Study -

D.1. Dictionary Use -

Ex.1.  Look up a dictionary and write two meanings of the following words - the one in which it is used in the lesson and the other which is more common -

Assume	Suppose
	Begin to have
Observe	Notice
	Obey or comply
Form	Shape
	To make
Cease	To come to an end
	To quit
School	A building to teach
	A group
Harbour	A port
	To bear or nurture

D. 2. Word-formation -

Read the following lines carefully -

Hoping to cease not till death

Retiring back a while

In the above lines, ‘hoping’ and ‘retiring’ are derived by adding ‘ing’ to ‘hope’ and ‘retire’ respectively.
Ex. 1. Select five words from your day-to-day life and add the suffix ‘ing’ to them to form new words.

• wash - washing
• read - reading
• play - playing
• cook - cooking
• sleep - sleeping

D. 3. Word-meaning -

Ex. 1. Write the antonyms of the following words and use them in your sentences -

perfect       cease         hope      permit        original

• perfect — imperfect — It is okay to be imperfect.
• cease — starts — The class starts at 10 a.m.
• hope — despair — All I feel is despair.
• permit — refuse — I refuse to do this work.
• original — fake — These diamonds are fake.

E. Grammar -

Ex.1. Read the following line from the poem -

'I celebrate myself, and sing myself'

In the given line ‘myself is a reflexive pronoun which has been used twice. Its usage in both the clauses is different. In the first clause, it is a reflexive pronoun, but in the second, it is objected to a verb (‘sing’).
Supply related reflexive pronouns in the following list -

Pronoun	Reflexive Pronoun
I	Myself
We	Ourselves
You	Yourself
They	Themselves
She	Herself
He	Himself
It	Itself

Ex. 2. Construct meaningful sentences with the help of the following verbs. Do not forget to use
‘reflexive pronouns’ after the verbs; for, these verbs are always followed by them -

enjoy      serving       absent      help      control

• enjoy — We enjoy ourselves very much.
• serve — They are happy to serve themselves.
• absent — He got absent himself.
• help — One should always help ourselves.
• control — He has controlled himself.