The Civil War
This president delivered a speech in 1863 at the dedication of a cemetery for soldiers who died at Gettysburg.
Who is Abraham Lincoln?
Walt Whitman wrote "O Captain! My Captain!" as an elegy for this fallen president.
Who is Abraham Lincoln?
This is the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, author of The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
Who is Mark Twain?
In "I’m Nobody! Who Are You?", Dickinson explores her feeling towards identity by contrasting being a "Nobody" with being a famous "___________."
What is Somebody?
This is the profession of Bartleby, the central character in Melville’s story.
What is a scrivener or copyist?
Northern writers like Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Sojourner Truth presented views against the American practices of slavery in this larger 19th-century political and literary movement.
What is Abolitionism?
"O Captain, My Captain" is an example of this type of poem with long lines and no rhyme, definitive of Whitman's "democratic" speech.
What is Free Verse?
In Twain’s story, this is the ironic name of the frog trained by Jim Smiley to compete in jumping contests.
Who is Daniel Webster?
In "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," Dickinson personifies Death as a courteous ____________who takes the speaker on a journey in a carriage.
What is a gentleman?
Bartleby’s repeated response, “I would prefer not to,” exemplifies this theme, common among workers in the Industrial Era.
What is passive resistance or alienation?
Herman Melville wrote a poem about this 1862 battle at _________ in Tennesee, one of the earliest major engagements in the Western Theater of the Civil War.
What is Shiloh?
In "O Captain! My Captain!," Whitman uses metaphor to address Lincoln as if he were steering a ________.
What is a ship?
The narrator in Twain’s story visits this character to hear about Jim Smiley and his notorious frog.
Who is Simon Wheeler?
The poem "Wild Nights – Wild Nights!" conveys the speaker's want for a life filled with ___________, as seen in the metaphors about the sea.
What is excitement or desire?
The narrator initially reacts to Bartleby with ________, and pity, before growing increasingly frustrated with his attitude.
What is sympathy?
In "Shiloh," Melville emphasizes the shocking human cost of the battle, highlighting that at the end of the battle, soldiers from both the Union and Confederate armies did this.
What is lie together on the ground (in death)?
Whitman served in this role during the Civil War, which gave him firsthand insight into the soldiers’ experiences that influenced his poetry.
What is a nurse/"wound dresser"?
This literary device, used by Twain to exaggerate characters and events for comic effect, is central to the story’s humor.
What is hyperbole?
Dickinson often uses this punctuation mark to create pauses, emphasis, or ambiguity, especially noticeable in these three poems.
What is the dash/ em dash (--)?
The setting of the story is an office building on this street in lower Manhattan, NYC.
What is Wall Street?
Lincoln ends the Gettysburg Address famously describing this two-word goal, meaning “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
What is Preserving Democracy?
The repeated phrase “fallen cold and dead” in "O Captain! My Captain!" emphasizes this theme, central to Whitman’s elegy.
What is grief or loss?
Simon Wheeler’s storytelling style, full of tangents, local dialect, and slow pacing, helps Twain highlight this style of American Literature.
What is Regionalism?
In "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," Dickinson’s description of the passing landscape symbolizes this concept about life.
What is life flashing before one's eyes on the journey to death?
Bartleby’s refusal to leave the office, even when the narrator offers incentives, shows which aspect of Bartleby's character?
What is his conflict with authority figures?