The Scarlet Letter

Hester Prynne is a woman who is convicted and condemned by her " people" - puritan settlers who settled in the "New World" and have strict rules in their beliefs. She is very worried about her baby for whom she doesn't really see a future. She probably loves the father of her baby very much as she does not want to speak out his name since he would be probably imprisoned, too.
Roger Prynne (Chillingworth) is the husband of Hester Prynne and is a lot older than her. Even though he knew Hester didn't love him he married her (probably because he deeply loved her). When he found out about Hester's child, that is not from him, he got upset and deeply hurt. Therefore he decided to find the father of the child and probably to kill him. After telling his wife Hester his identity he made her swear not to tell it to anyone. After that he left her with her child.
Arthur Dimmesdale is a young but very respected Puritan minister who has a great intellect and who is very aware of the Puritan rules. On the contrary, however, he kind of defends Hester Prynne in front of the whole village which makes him generous, brave and nice.

Drum Taps by Whitman

In the poet "Drum Taps", Whitman describes preparations for a war ("The young men falling in and arming", "Outdoors arming—indoors arming—the flash of the musket-barrels").
In the abstracts he describes the terrible feeling he had while he was serving probably serving as a nurse.
("To sit by the wounded and soothe them, or silently watch the dead.")
All these events take place at Manhattan, New York City. So you can assume that Whitman has served for the Union. In this poet, he emphasizes how sad and terrible he feels about this war.

Description and challenges of the poet by Whitman

In the 4th paragraph Whitman says: "The American poets are to enclose old and new for America is the race of races."
He challenges him by saying:" For such the expression of the American poet is to be transcendant and new."
"Of all nations the United States with veins full of poetical stuff most need poets and will doubtless have the greatest and use them the greatest."
"Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall." 
"Of all mankind the great poet is the equable man."
With all these statements Whitman challenges the American poet.

Whitman “Preface to ‘Leaves of Grass’”

In today's class we started reading the “Preface to ‘Leaves of Grass’” of Whitman.
After reading the first two paragraphs we noticed that Whitman used a very different style of writing than, for example, Emerson used.
He starts like this: "AMERICA does not repel the past".Then he lists a few things related to the American people (in his opinion) and ends the first paragraph by saying (the American people)..."and that he shall be fittest for his days.", which maybe means that he was a patriot.
In the second paragraph, he starts with: "The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth, have probably the fullest poetical nature."
He also names the greatest thing for the American people"the spirit of the citizen".That even confirms that he was really patriotic. But he names also issues that in his opinion is very bad, for example slavery, treatment of the Indian tribes and women's rights.