Analysis of Scented Herbage Of My Breast
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
SCENTED herbage of my breast,
Leaves from you I yield, I write, to be perused best afterwards,
Tomb-leaves, body-leaves, growing up above me, above death,
Perennial roots, tall leaves--O the winter shall not freeze you,
delicate leaves,
Every year shall you bloom again--out from where you retired, you
shall emerge again;
O I do not know whether many, passing by, will discover you, or
inhale your faint odor--but I believe a few will;
O slender leaves! O blossoms of my blood! I permit you to tell, in
your own way, of the heart that is under you;
O burning and throbbing--surely all will one day be accomplish'd;
O I do not know what you mean, there underneath yourselves--you are
not happiness,
You are often more bitter than I can bear--you burn and sting me, 10
Yet you are very beautiful to me, you faint-tinged roots--you make me
think of Death,
Death is beautiful from you--(what indeed is finally beautiful,
except Death and Love?)
--O I think it is not for life I am chanting here my chant of
lovers--I think it must be for Death,
For how calm, how solemn it grows, to ascend to the atmosphere of
lovers,
Death or life I am then indifferent--my Soul declines to prefer,
I am not sure but the high Soul of lovers welcomes death most;
Indeed, O Death, I think now these leaves mean precisely the same as
you mean;
Grow up taller, sweet leaves, that I may see! grow up out of my
breast!
Spring away from the conceal'd heart there!
Do not fold yourself so in your pink-tinged roots, timid leaves! 20
Do not remain down there so ashamed, herbage of my breast!
Come, I am determin'd to unbare this broad breast of mine--I have
long enough stifled and choked:
--Emblematic and capricious blade, I leave you--now you serve me not;
Away! I will say what I have to say, by itself,
I will escape from the sham that was proposed to me,
I will sound myself and comrades only--I will never again utter a
call, only their call,
I will raise, with it, immortal reverberations through The States,
I will give an example to lovers, to take permanent shape and will
through The States;
Through me shall the words be said to make death exhilarating;
Give me your tone therefore, O Death, that I may accord with it, 30
Give me yourself--for I see that you belong to me now above all, and
are folded inseparably together--you Love and Death are;
Nor will I allow you to balk me any more with what I was calling
life,
For now it is convey'd to me that you are the purports essential,
That you hide in these shifting forms of life, for reasons--and that
they are mainly for you,
That you, beyond them, come forth, to remain, the real reality,
That behind the mask of materials you patiently wait, no matter how
long,
That you will one day, perhaps, take control of all,
That you will perhaps dissipate this entire show of appearance,
That may-be you are what it is all for--but it does not last so very
long;
But you will last very long. 40
Scheme | abcdedfghidjgkllchmmcmngopqraseatuvwlyz1 h1 2 3 4 g2 5 h6 dl7 8 z9 l8 8 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101111 111111111011100 11101101011011 010011110101111 1001 1001111011111011 10101 111111010101101011 0111101101011 11011101111011110 11110111101 1100101011111010 111111111010111 1100 1110110111111011 11110100111111111 111 11100111011100100 01101 1111111111101111 101111111 1111101110110101 10 1111110101101101 111110111101011 0111111111010011 11 111011111111111 1 101100111 11101101111101 1101111011111 111010111111111 1011001 0100010111111111 0111111111101 1101101110111 11110110111001100 11011 111110100010101 111101011011100101 101 11101111110100 11111111110111 110111111011110110 1100100001011011 111011111101111110 1 1111011111101010 111011011111001 111011 11011111010110 1010110100110011101 1 111110110111 1110110101011010 111111111111111110 1 1111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 3,211 |
Words | 538 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 59 |
Lines Amount | 59 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 2,258 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 578 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 08, 2023
- 2:42 min read
- 119 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Scented Herbage Of My Breast" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38132/scented-herbage-of-my-breast>.
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