Major Spratt's English 3 class Blog

By: Casey Robinson on Nov 29, 2020 | Categories: General, Academic

Major Spratt’s English 3 students have been reading, writing about, and discussing the poetry of Walt Whitman. Whitman’s poems celebrate America’s diversity (peoples, landscapes, livelihoods), democratic and enterprising spirit, and the natural world. His great poem Leaves of Grass was his attempt to inspire his readers--and the nation at large--to imagine themselves as united as a people at a time when the Civil War loomed on the horizon. Students shared in reading passages from Whitman’s poems aloud in class and listened to podcast interviews with scholars who shed light on Whitman in context of his time and place. We also discussed Whitman’s poetry as especially relevant to the divide ripping through America today.