2) Contrast Whitman's representation of the wounded in poetry versus prose, in a letter versus a poem, in the essay Memoranda versus a poem, in a letter to his mother versus a letter to Emerson. In short, think about how literary forms and a sense of audience shapes Whitman's writing. You might focus your thinking (or writing on this topic) by considering how a specific concern appears differently in different forms. For example, how does Whitman's representation of the injured body in a poem differ from his representation of the wounded in his letters to his mother.

3) Compare and contrast "A March in the Ranks" and "The Veteran's Vision" (also known as "The Artillery Man's Vision"). Consider subject matter, tone, words, mood.

4) Go to the Library of Congress site and look at the manuscript pages reproduced there from Whitman's hospital notebooks. Choose a series of entries that interest you and transcribe them, noting words or letters you cannot definitively decipher. Then, write a response paper that focuses on the text and considers it in the larger context of Whitman's war writings.

5) Read the "Theoretical Considerations" page on this site. Select one question below to answer:

--How much does Whitman seek to capture the vivid reality of the human body?
--How much do the injured bodies in Whitman's writings serve to substantiate political causes?
--Do Whitman's representations offer a different understanding of injuring and war than Scarry asserts is typical of most rhetoric about war?
--Are there differences between Whitman's representation of dead bodies versus injured bodies?