Every Day

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“The Song of A: Every Day and the Poetry of Walt Whitman”

While learning about a classic poem of American literature, students will flex their creative muscles as they imagine a dialogue between the formless A with the all-encompassing “I” from Walt Whitman’s groundbreaking poem “Song of Myself.”

Published in 1855 in his seminal poetry collection Leaves of Grass, “Song of Myself”  is an epic poem by Walt Whitman that celebrates life, nature, and the mysteries of the universe. The narrator is a shapeshifting “I,” and the poem is famous for lines such as these:

• "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." (Section 1)
• "In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barleycorn less/and the good or bad I say of myself I say of them" (Section 20)
• "It is you talking just as much as myself... I act as the tongue of you" (Section 47)
• "I am large, I contain multitudes." (Section 51)

In these lines, you might recognize something similar to what A describes in Every Day as “enormity,” and you may also see something of a Fluid Identity, which is explored at length in the character of A.

To begin this activity, read through the poem “Song of Myself” (link above), as well as these critical analyses of the poem: NPR’s “Robert Hass: On Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself’” and The Guardian’s “The 10 Best American Poems.” Next, imagine a meeting between A and “I,” the narrator of “Song of Myself.” Using no less than three (3) direct citations from the text, have A describe the concept of “enormity” to “I.” Then, have “I” respond to learning about this concept – would he share similar feelings about the world and the universe, compared to A? To conclude your dialogue, imagine that A could offer “I” the opportunity to have A’s special power, the ability to inhabit and jump from one body to the next. Would “I” take this opportunity? Say why or why not, using textual examples from “Song of Myself.” Your dialogue should be 2-3 double-spaced pages.

Teaching Suggestion: To help guide students through this exercise, ask them to consider how the “I” in Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” might respond to some of A’s findings, as “I” moves through the novel of Every Day. How would “I” define love? Would “I” define it as Connection and Commitment? What would “I” say about having a Fluid Identity? In lines like “I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the/beginning and the end,/But I do not talk of the beginning or the end,” how might “I” conceptualize time in a way that is similar to A? If students have trouble generating dialogue, be sure to remind them of Every Day’s core themes, and have them use those as the foundation of this activity.