Analysis of As Consequent, Etc.
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
AS consequent from store of summer rains,
Or wayward rivulets in autumn flowing,
Or many a herb-lined brook's reticulations,
Or subterranean sea-rills making for the sea,
Songs of continued years I sing.
Life's ever-modern rapids first, (soon, soon to blend,
With the old streams of death.)
Some threading Ohio's farm-fields or the woods,
Some down Colorado's cañons from sources of perpetual snow,
Some half-hid in Oregon, or away southward in Texas, 10
Some in the north finding their way to Erie, Niagara, Ottawa,
Some to Atlantica's bays, and so to the great salt brine.
In you whoe'er you are my book perusing,
In I myself, in all the world, these currents flowing,
All, all toward the mystic ocean tending.
Currents for starting a continent new,
Overtures sent to the solid out of the liquid,
Fusion of ocean and land, tender and pensive waves,
(Not safe and peaceful only, waves rous'd and ominous too,
Out of the depths the storm's abysmic waves, who knows whence? 20
Raging over the vast, with many a broken spar and tatter'd sail.)
Or from the sea of Time, collecting vasting all, I bring,
A windrow-drift of weeds and shells.
O little shells, so curious-convolute, so limpid-cold and voiceless,
Will you not little shells to the tympans of temples held,
Murmurs and echoes still call up, eternity's music faint and far,
Wafted inland, sent from Atlantica's rim, strains for the soul of the
prairies,
Whisper'd reverberations, chords for the ear of the West joyously
sounding,
Your tidings old, yet ever new and untranslatable,
Infinitesimals out of my life, and many a life, 30
(For not my life and years alone I give--all, all I give,)
These waifs from the deep, cast high and dry,
Wash'd on America's shores?
Scheme | ABAXB XX XXCXX BBB DXXDXE BX CXXXXEBEXXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1100111101 110101010 11001111 1001001110101 11010111 110101011111 101111 11001011101 1101011110101001 111010010110010 1001101111001010 11110110111 0111111010 011010111010 11010101010 1011001001 101101011010 1011001100101 11010101101001 11010111111 10100111001010101 1101110101111 0111101 1101110010111010 1111011011101 10010111110101 1011111110110 10 10001011011011 10 1101110101 1111101001 11110101111111 111011101 1101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,847 |
Words | 297 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 2, 5, 3, 6, 2, 12 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 192 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 68 Views
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"As Consequent, Etc." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37961/as-consequent%2C-etc.>.
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