Analysis of That Music Always Round Me

Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)




   THAT music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning--yet long untaught
         I did not hear;
   But now the chorus I hear, and am elated;
   A tenor, strong, ascending, with power and health, with glad notes of
         day-break I hear,
   A soprano, at intervals, sailing buoyantly over the tops of immense
         waves,
   A transparent bass, shuddering lusciously under and through the
         universe,
   The triumphant tutti--the funeral wailings, with sweet flutes and
         violins--all these I fill myself with;
   I hear not the volumes of sound merely--I am moved by the exquisite
         meanings,
   I listen to the different voices winding in and out, striving,
         contending with fiery vehemence to excel each other in emotion;
   I do not think the performers know themselves--but now I think I
         begin to know them.


Scheme ABACBDEFGAHAIJKLM
Poetic Form
Metre 1101110101111 1111 110101101010 0101010110011111 1111 001011001011001101 1 00101100110010 10 001010010011110 001111111 111010111011110100 10 11010100101000110 01011001001011100010 1111001010111111 01111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 850
Words 127
Sentences 2
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 17
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 602
Words per stanza (avg) 125
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

38 sec read
129

Walt Whitman

Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. more…

All Walt Whitman poems | Walt Whitman Books

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