Analysis of City Of Ships
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
CITY of ships!
(O the black ships! O the fierce ships!
O the beautiful, sharp-bow'd steam-ships and sail-ships!)
City of the world! (for all races are here;
All the lands of the earth make contributions here;)
City of the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides!
City whose gleeful tides continually rush or recede, whirling in and
out, with eddies and foam!
City of wharves and stores! city of tall façades of marble and iron!
Proud and passionate city! mettlesome, mad, extravagant city!
Spring up, O city! not for peace alone, but be indeed yourself,
warlike! 10
Fear not! submit to no models but your own, O city!
Behold me! incarnate me, as I have incarnated you!
I have rejected nothing you offer'd me--whom you adopted, I have
adopted;
Good or bad, I never question you--I love all--I do not condemn
anything;
I chant and celebrate all that is yours--yet peace no more;
In peace I chanted peace, but now the drum of war is mine;
War, red war, is my song through your streets, O city!
Scheme | AAABBCDEFGHIGJKLMNOPG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011 10111011 101001111011 10101111011 10110110101 101011011001001 1011010100011011000 111001 101101101111110010 101001011010010 1111011101110101 1 11011110111110 011010111111 110101011011101011 010 11111010111111101 10 1101011111111 01110111011111 111111111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,120 |
Words | 181 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 21 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 757 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 229 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 88 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"City Of Ships" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37991/city-of-ships>.
Discuss this Walt Whitman poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In