Leaves of Grass Discussion Guide:
A few conversation starters.

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Use this discussion guide to inspire in-depth thinking, and jump-start a conversation about Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. There’s plenty here to set your mental wheels in motion.

1. What does Whitman mean when he says, “The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem”?
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2. Why does Whitman think that the United States, of all nations, has the most need of poets?
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3. What does Whitman mean when he says, “A great poem is no finish to a man or woman but rather a beginning”?
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4. What “self” does the speaker celebrate? Is it the same as his individual personality?
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5. What does it mean when the speaker says, “Evil propels me, and reform of evil propels me . . . . I stand indifferent,” is he refusing to take any moral stance?
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6. What does the speaker mean when he says, “Writing and talk do not prove me”?
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7. Much of Song of Myself is written in the tone of a lecture or a sermon. So, what does the speaker mean when he says, “Logic and sermons never convince”?
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8. Whose questioning does the speaker refer to when he says, “My words are words of a questioning, and to indicate reality”? What type of relationship is suggested between the questioning and the indication of reality?
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9. How does the speaker think his  self-contradiction is balanced by his claim that “I contain multitudes”?
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10. Why does the speaker characterize Song of Myself as a “barbaric yawp”?

Have a gander at our take on
Leaves of Grass: A celebration of American Democracy.
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