What does he think about the next life? Read the poem over slowly and
thoughtfully to yourself, or aloud to some one: How does it make you
feel?

Can you see any reason for calling Whitman a great poet? Has he
broadened your idea of what poetry may be? Read, if possible, in John
Burroughs's book on Whitman, pages 48-53.


EXERCISES

Re-read the _Warble for Lilac-Time_. Can you write of the signs of fall,
in somewhat the same way? Choose the most beautiful and the most
important characteristics that you can think of. Try to use color-words
and sound-words so that they make your composition vivid and musical.
Compare the _Warble for Lilac-Time_ with the first lines of Chaucer's
_Prologue_ to the _Canterbury Tales_. With Lowell's _How Spring Came in
New England_.


THEME SUBJECTS

A Walk in the Woods
A Spring Day
Sugar-Making
My Flower Garden
The Garden in Lilac Time
The Orchard in Spring
On a Farm in Early Summer
A Walk on a Summer Night