English - Poetry Chapter 2: Song of Myself Long Answer Questions

Q1 Explain the line ‘Hoping to cease not till death’.

Answer: 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 for 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 view in the line “hoping to cease not till death”.

Q2 Comment on the subjectivism (Personal feeling) in the poem?

Answer: 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 system 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 which gives pain in human beings. Also, it gives him pain when he listens about quarreling people in the same way for religion.

Q3 Why does the poet not want to bother himself with “Creeds and Schools”

Answer: 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 system of thoughts in the world. Still, he does not bother himself with it. He knows that everyone is the same in all condition. Take birth’ from different parents have no difference among them and they are similar in all respects. Their blood is the same.

Q4 What does the poet mean by ‘Nature without check with original energy’?

Answer:The poet means to say, “nature without check with original energy”, that he believes in good and bad aspects of life and he favors to tell about every danger or fear, which he hopes to acquire through nature without check unrestricted nature and original energy.

Q5. How does the speaker establish relation between ‘me’ and ‘you’?

Answer ⇒  The speaker establishes a complete identity between himself and others by saying ‘every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you’. Me and you are the two sides of the same coin.