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Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" and Authority ::: The Set-Up/Writing Assignment

For the design/framing of the following assignment click here.

The SET-UP

Now that we've read the poem, discussed the theme of authority, including looking at the cultural artifacts related to the New York police during the time, pull specific excerpts from the poem that you feel reference authority. What sections of the poem, short or long, speak most strongly to you regarding the theme of authority? This can be something as overt as a section including the word police (for example, "the policeman travels his beat..."), or perhaps something a little more hidden in the text (for example, "Patriarchs sit at supper with sons and grandsons and great grandsons around them..."). Take some chances with the poem. Try to find some excerpts that might be difficult to connect to authority. Experiment with the excerpts by writing a few ideas down as to why your excerpt connects to authority. Be prepared to share these ideas in class. Once we share some of these as a group, take some time to free-write on how your excerpt speaks to authority during the time the poem was written, discuss how it relates to authority in your own lives, and how "authority" works in relation to other themes of the poem we've brought up in class (for example, community, individualism, etc).

When this is complete, we'll spend some time sharing the ideas you've come up with in your writing. Walk around the room and share at least 3 ideas that came up for you with other students. Then, we'll reconvene and each of you will share an idea that stuck with you from your conversations. For this discussion, you'll want to share the ideas of your fellow students, not your own.

The WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Working from your class writing and discussion, research some of your own artifacts of Whitman's time that relate to authority. Specifically, search the Library of Congress' website for photos of policeman in or around 1855, when Whitman published his first version of "Leaves of Grass." Spend some time doing a "close-reading" of your photo. What do you notice about the photo? Make a list. Describe the photo. Describe your relationship to the photo. How does it make you feel? How do you relate to the photo in terms of our focus theme of "authority"? What about your notions of police now - how does the photo relate to that? Now, on your blog, write your own 600-700 word poem in response to the artifact, this photo, the theme of authority - write in relation to Whitman's notions of authority in his poem and your own experience of authority. I encourage you to play with the words, ideas, craft of Whitman's poem, and use his poem as a starting point to craft your own work. What will your poem say about your experience of authority? What similarities will your poem share with Whitman's - in both form and meaning? This poem should be a minimum of 2 pages, double spaced. Remember to use references to Whitman's use of authority in the poem and references to your photo artifact and its representation of authority.

In addition, spend another 2 pages (600-700 words, double-spaced) writing on how your poem is similar or different to Whitman's. In what ways is your theme of authority similar or dissimilar to the theme of authority in Whitman's work? Could your poem work in the context of Whitman's time and, if so, how? What does your poem say about the theme community? individualism? freedom?

a writing/engagement assignment with Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" and the topic of authority

a writing/engagement assignment with Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" and the topic of authority

I. Results
A. Primary goal: What do you want the students to understand more fully about "Song of Myself"? Why is this topic important to Whitman? How does this topic connect to other themes or concerns of the poem? How might this topic or question engage students' interest and/or experience? How does this topic or question relate to broader issues in literature? How does it relate to broader cultural or social issues?

• How does Whitman handle authority in his poem?
• How does authority relate to other themes (individuality, expression, creativity, etc.) of the poem?
• Knowing the history of authority figures (our example: the police) during Whitman's time, how does Whitman use his poetry to contain, capture, express his perspective on this topic?

B. Secondary goals: what do you want students to understand about reading poetry? about how to write about poetry? about how to connect text and context?

• How does Whitman's poem relate to your understanding of authority in your own lives? Does Whitman's poem express some of your own feelings on authority, and, if so, how?
• How does the text change in relation to the context of your life as opposed to how it works in the context of when it was written?
• How does this poem and Whitman's perspective on authority fit into the genre of romantic poetry? If it doesn't, why and how doesn't it?

II. Evidence of learning: How will students demonstrate that they are answering the question? What will your evidence of student learning look like?
A. Types of writing/evidence:

1. free-writing
2. blog-posting
3. creative writing
4. artifact uncovering
5. in-class discussion

B. How will this show you that they've learned? How will you evaluate its success or failure in relation to your goals?

1. By connecting the original excerpts, through the free-writing and in-class discussion, to the final work with artifacts and poetry writing, those concrete through-lines will emerge identifying what insights the students have gained from their work.
2. Moving backwards to my original goals, the questions listed above in section one, it should be clear as to whether the students work provides the expected answers.

III. Design

A. what knowledge or skills will students need in order to produce their evidence of student learning? knowledge about the poem; cultural or historical knowledge; knowledge about Whitman? skills in reading? skills in analysis/making connections? skills in writing?

1. knowledge about the cultural artifacts
2. knowledge about romantics
3. close-reading for themes (authority)
4. summarizing and critiquing poetry & their own work

B. what kind of activities will develop these knowledges and skills? what kinds of things will students need to do to acquire these knowledges and skills?

1. See above: Section 2-A.
2. These are the skills we're working on together - they'll need to involve themselves in the assignment and in so doing acquire these skills.

C. How will you structure these activities? do some have to come before others? which? why? are some more or less important than others? are some more or less formal than others?

1. The students will be asked to read the poem at home, and come into class prepared
2. The students will pull specific excerpts from the poem that they feel reference authority and bring them to class. Once we share some of these as a group, they'll spend time free-writing on the topic - the directions for the free-write will ask the students to explain how their excerpt speaks to authority during the time, how it relates to authority in their lives, how it works in relation to other themes of the poem that we've brought up in class, etc.
3. Following this, they'll spend some time sharing their ideas with one another in class, mingling around the room, with the expectation that they'll need to share ideas they glean from other students with the rest of the class.
4. At home, the students will be required to find some of their own artifacts of Whitman's time that relate to authority. On their blog, they'll be required to 1) explain how their artifact relates to authority and 2) write their own 200 word poem in response to their artifact and the theme of authority.
5. After a class period on the genre of romantic poetry, as an additional activity the students will need to find other romantic poetry that deals with the notion of authority, and bring them to class to have another free-write and in-class discussion session.
6. In class they will write an essay about their poem arguing why or why not it falls under the category of romantic poetry.

"the policeman travels his beat..."

Based on Whitman's several references to the police force in "Leaves of Grass," I thought it might be interesting to research the world of the NYPD in and around 1850. I came across a lot of interesting information, photos, history, etc, in and outside of the Whitman archive.

It's hard to know exactly where Whitman stood in regards to the New York police, which were newly organized only years before the 1855 version of "Leaves of Grass" was published. Horace L. Traubel, a friend of Whitman's, in his interviews with the poet during the last years of his life, quoted Whitman as saying, "The marriage bond and police law forever!" (see the volume in its entirety here). To contrast this, in her chapter on Whitman in From Fact to Fiction, Shelley Fisher Fishkin states that he "deplored" the police's treatment of "prostitutes and the children of the poor" (see whole article here). These quotes and comments representing Whitman's perspective leave much to be desired, but constructing a pseudo reality of what the New York police might have existed as during Whitman's time might help us start to shed light on how Whitman might have regarded the organization. Of course, the information provided below is only attempting to do just that - to "start" piecing together this reality by using resources and artifacts found on the internet.

Interesting facts: In 1845 the official New York Police Department was established. Shortly afterwards, in the 1850s, the first multi-shot pistol, introduced by Samuel Colt, goes into mass production. The weapon is adopted by the Texas Rangers and, thereafter, by police departments nationwide. This would have transformed the notion of power for the police during the time, and Whitman would most certainly have been present to this development (not to mention all of the other history referenced below). It's amazing to think that these numbers, facts and bits of information made up the world of "the police" for Whitman. When he comments on the police in his work this is the frame of reference from which he undoubtedly pulled.

Fascinating arrest statistics from the first organization of the police department between 1845-1850 - This particular page is just a small section, one page of an entire website dedicated to the long and detailed history of the NYPD. The amount of information here is virtually endless and overwhelming. Here we have access to facts/statistics as artifacts.

A letter to Walt Whitman from his brother Thomas Jefferson Whitman which briefly mentions the importance of the New York police in keeping the city safe (there's a note at the bottom of the page describing the incident to which Thomas refers - the 1863 Draft Riots).

In doing the necessary online research for different projects in this class, I've come across the Google "timeline" website several times, which lays down a timeline for your topic by providing links that contain information about the important events and when they occured. Up until now I experienced this Google tool as no more than an interesting trick, but, in the context of building a world around Whitman and his poem, it has emerged as a helpful web-tool to piecing those years together online. Click here to see the timeline for the NYPD from 1840-1858.

Finally, below are some photos of the New York police taken at famous locations in the city, including Central Park and Broadway, between 1850 and 1910.