Analysis of A Riddle Song
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
THAT which eludes this verse and any verse,
Unheard by sharpest ear, unform'd in clearest eye or cunningest mind,
Nor lore nor fame, nor happiness nor wealth,
And yet the pulse of every heart and life throughout the world
incessantly,
Which you and I and all pursuing ever ever miss,
Open but still a secret, the real of the real, an illusion,
Costless, vouchsafed to each, yet never man the owner,
Which poets vainly seek to put in rhyme, historians in prose,
Which sculptor never chisel'd yet, nor painter painted,
Which vocalist never sung, nor orator nor actor ever utter'd, 10
Invoking here and now I challenge for my song.
Indifferently, 'mid public, private haunts, in solitude,
Behind the mountain and the wood,
Companion of the city's busiest streets, through the assemblage,
It and its radiations constantly glide.
In looks of fair unconscious babes,
Or strangely in the coffin'd dead,
Or show of breaking dawn or stars by night,
As some dissolving delicate film of dreams,
Hiding yet lingering. 20
Two little breaths of words comprising it.
Two words, yet all from first to last comprised in it.
How ardently for it!
How many ships have sail'd and sunk for it!
How many travelers started from their homes and ne'er return'd!
How much of genius boldly staked and lost for it!
What countless stores of beauty, love, ventur'd for it!
How all superbest deeds since Time began are traceable to it--and
shall be to the end!
How all heroic martyrdoms to it!
How, justified by it, the horrors, evils, battles of the earth! 30
How the bright fascinating lambent flames of it, in every age and
land, have drawn men's eyes,
Rich as a sunset on the Norway coast, the sky, the islands, and the
cliffs,
Or midnight's silent glowing northern lights unreachable.
Haply God's riddle it, so vague and yet so certain,
The soul for it, and all the visible universe for it,
And heaven at last for it.
Scheme | XXXXXXAXXXXX XXXX XXXXX BB BBXBBCXBXCXXXX ABB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 1101110101 011101010101111 1111110011 010111001010101 0100 11010101010101 1011010011011010 11111101010 1101011101010001 1101010111010 110010111001101010 010101110111 1110101010 01010001 0101010100110010 10111001 0111101 1100011 1111011111 11010100111 101100 1101110101 111111110101 110011 1101110111 110100101110101 111101010111 110111011011 111111011100110 11101 11010111 110110101010101 1011001111010010 11111 110110110101000 1 1110101010100 111011101110 01110101001011 0101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,053 |
Words | 332 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 4, 5, 2, 14, 3 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 247 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:43 min read
- 120 Views
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