Q 01/05

Whitman is often called the father of which poetic form?

A) The sonnet

B) Blank verse

C) The haiku

D) Free verse

Answer · why

D) Free verse

Free verse wasn't his invention, though: Christopher Smart had already used a form of it in Jubilate Agno, written nearly a century before Leaves of G...

Q 02/05

Where was Walt Whitman born in 1819?

A) Brooklyn Heights

B) West Hills, Long Island

C) Camden, New Jersey

D) Lower Manhattan

Answer · why

B) West Hills, Long Island

West Hills, Long Island was soon left behind when his father moved the family to booming Brooklyn to try his luck speculating in real estate.

Q 03/05

Whitman's parents named three of his younger brothers after whom?

A) Old Testament prophets

B) American heroes

C) English kings

D) Greek philosophers

Answer · why

B) American heroes

American heroes gave them their names: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson Whitman, a tribute from parents who admired their young ...

Q 04/05

What job did the young Whitman hold for about five unhappy years, moving from town to town?

A) Land surveyor

B) Schoolteacher

C) Circuit preacher

D) Peddler

Answer · why

B) Schoolteacher

Schoolteacher was a job he took only after fires and a failing economy left the young printer unable to find work in New York City.

Q 05/05

Which weekly newspaper did Whitman found in Huntington in 1838?

A) The Aurora

B) The Brooklyn Eagle

C) The Patriot

D) The Long-Islander

Answer · why

D) The Long-Islander

The Long-Islander kept Whitman busy as its editor and publisher, and he even delivered the paper to readers himself.