Analysis of Carol Of Words
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
EARTH, round, rolling, compact--suns, moons, animals--all these are
words to be said;
Watery, vegetable, sauroid advances--beings, premonitions, lispings
of the future,
Behold! these are vast words to be said.
Were you thinking that those were the words--those upright lines?
those curves, angles, dots?
No, those are not the words--the substantial words are in the ground
and sea,
They are in the air--they are in you.
Were you thinking that those were the words--those delicious sounds
out of your friends' mouths?
No, the real words are more delicious than they.
Human bodies are words, myriads of words;
In the best poems re-appears the body, man's or woman's, well-shaped,
natural, gay, 10
Every part able, active, receptive, without shame or the need of
shame.
Air, soil, water, fire--these are words;
I myself am a word with them--my qualities interpenetrate with
theirs--my name is nothing to them;
Though it were told in the three thousand languages, what would air,
soil, water, fire, know of my name?
A healthy presence, a friendly or commanding gesture, are words,
sayings, meanings;
The charms that go with the mere looks of some men and women, are
sayings and meanings also.
The workmanship of souls is by the inaudible words of the earth;
The great masters know the earth's words, and use them more than the
audible words.
Amelioration is one of the earth's words;
The earth neither lags nor hastens; 20
It has all attributes, growths, effects, latent in itself from the
jump;
It is not half beautiful only--defects and excrescences show just as
much as perfections show.
The earth does not withhold, it is generous enough;
The truths of the earth continually wait, they are not so conceal'd
either;
They are calm, subtle, untransmissible by print;
They are imbued through all things, conveying themselves willingly,
Conveying a sentiment and invitation of the earth--I utter and utter,
I speak not, yet if you hear me not, of what avail am I to you?
To bear--to better--lacking these, of what avail am I?
Accouche! Accouchez! 30
Will you rot your own fruit in yourself there?
Will you squat and stifle there?
The earth does not argue,
Is not pathetic, has no arrangements,
Does not scream, haste, persuade, threaten, promise,
Makes no discriminations, has no conceivable failures,
Closes nothing, refuses nothing, shuts none out,
Of all the powers, objects, states, it notifies, shuts none out.
The earth does not exhibit itself, nor refuse to exhibit itself--
possesses still underneath;
Underneath the ostensible sounds, the august chorus of heroes, the
wail of slaves, 40
Persuasions of lovers, curses, gasps of the dying, laughter of young
people, accents of bargainers,
Underneath these, possessing the words that never fail.
To her children, the words of the eloquent dumb great mother never
fail;
The true words do not fail, for motion does not fail, and reflection
does not fail;
Also the day and night do not fail, and the voyage we pursue does not
fail.
Of the interminable sisters,
Of the ceaseless cotillions of sisters,
Of the centripetal and centrifugal sisters, the elder and younger
sisters,
The beautiful sister we know dances on with the rest.
With her ample back towards every beholder, 50
With the fascinations of youth, and the equal fascinations of age,
Sits she whom I too love like the rest--sits undisturb'd,
Holding up in her hand what has the character of a mirror, while her
eyes glance back from it,
Glance as she sits, inviting none, denying none,
Holding a mirror day and night tirelessly before her own face.
Seen at hand, or seen at a distance,
Duly the twenty-four appear in public every day,
Duly approach and pass with their companions, or a companion,
Looking from no countenances of their own, but from the countenances
of those who are with them,
From the countenances of children or women, or the manly
Scheme | abcdb ccxce ccf cxfxg cxhig ccac xjc ccjxcx xxdxkdex cii ecccll xxjcxcm dMnmxM ccdcxdxxdxnc cfnchk |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101011100111 1111 10010010101000101 1010 011111111 0110110011011 11101 111101001011001 01 110011101 01101100110101 11111 10111101011 101011111 00110101010111011 1001 100110100100111011 1 111010111 1110111110011 11111011 110100110100111 110101111 0101001010101011 1010 011110111110101 1001010 0101111001001101 01101011011110 1001 0010111011 01101110 111101011000110 1 1111100101001111 1111 0111011110001 01101010001111101 10 11110111 110111101001100 01001000010101110010 11111111111011111 11110101110111 11 1111110011 1110101 011110 1101011010 1111011010 11111010010 101001010111 11010101110111 011101001101101001 010101 01001001010101100 111 01011010110101011 10101100 011010011101 10100110100111010 1 0111111101110010 111 100101111001010111 1 100100010 10101110 101010010010010 10 01001011101101 1010101100010 101110010111 111111101101 101001110100101010 11111 111101010101 1001010110001011 111111010 100101010101001 1001011101010010 101110001111101000 111111 1010001101101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 4,370 |
Words | 643 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 15 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 3, 5, 5, 4, 3, 6, 8, 3, 6, 7, 6, 12, 6 |
Lines Amount | 84 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 202 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:14 min read
- 161 Views
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