Analysis of Who Is Now Reading This?
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
May-be one is now reading this who knows some wrong-doing of my past
life,
Or may-be a stranger is reading this who has secretly loved me,
Or may-be one who meets all my grand assumptions and egotisms with
derision,
Or may-be one who is puzzled at me.
As if I were not puzzled at myself!
Or as if I never deride myself! (O conscience-struck! O self-
convicted!)
Or as if I do not secretly love strangers! (O tenderly, a long time,
and never avow it;)
Or as if I did not see, perfectly well, interior in myself, the stuff
of wrong-doing,
Or as if it could cease transpiring from me until it must cease. 10
| Scheme | XXAXXA BBXXXXXX |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 11111101111110111 1 11101011011110011 111111111010011 010 1111111011 111011011 111110011110111 010 1111111001101100011 010011 1111111100101000101 1110 11111101001101111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
| Characters | 670 |
| Words | 119 |
| Sentences | 8 |
| Stanzas | 2 |
| Stanza Lengths | 6, 8 |
| Lines Amount | 14 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
| Words per line (avg) | 8 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 231 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 59 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 119 Views
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"Who Is Now Reading This?" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38254/who-is-now-reading-this%3F>.
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