Analysis of Now List To My Morning's Romanza
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
NOW list to my morning's romanza--I tell the signs of the Answerer;
To the cities and farms I sing, as they spread in the sunshine before
me.
A young man comes to me bearing a message from his brother;
How shall the young man know the whether and when of his brother?
Tell him to send me the signs.
And I stand before the young man face to face, and take his right
hand in my left hand, and his left hand in my right hand,
And I answer for his brother, and for men, and I answer for him that
answers for all, and send these signs.
Him all wait for--him all yield up to--his word is decisive and
final,
Him they accept, in him lave, in him perceive themselves, as amid
light,
Him they immerse, and he immerses them. 10
Beautiful women, the haughtiest nations, laws, the landscape, people,
animals,
The profound earth and its attributes, and the unquiet ocean, (so
tell I my morning's romanza;)
All enjoyments and properties, and money, and whatever money will
buy,
The best farms--others toiling and planting, and he unavoidably
reaps,
The noblest and costliest cities--others grading and building, and he
domiciles there;
Nothing for any one, but what is for him--near and far are for him,
the ships in the offing,
The perpetual shows and marches on land, are for him, if they are for
any body.
He puts things in their attitudes;
He puts to-day out of himself, with plasticity and love;
He places his own city, times, reminiscences, parents, brothers and
sisters, associations, employment, politics, so that the rest
never shame them afterward, nor assume to command them. 20
He is the answerer:
What can be answer'd he answers--and what cannot be answer'd, he
shows how it cannot be answer'd.
A man is a summons and challenge;
(It is vain to skulk--Do you hear that mocking and laughter? Do you
hear the ironical echoes?)
Books, friendships, philosophers, priests, action, pleasure, pride,
beat up and down, seeking to give satisfaction;
He indicates the satisfaction, and indicates them that beat up and
down also.
Whichever the sex, whatever the season or place, he may go freshly
and gently and safely, by day or by night;
He has the pass-key of hearts--to him the response of the prying of
hands on the knobs.
His welcome is universal--the flow of beauty is not more welcome or
universal than he is;
The person he favors by day, or sleeps with at night, is blessed. 30
Every existence has its idiom--everything has an idiom and tongue;
He resolves all tongues into his own, and bestows it upon men, and
any man translates, and any man translates himself also;
One part does not counteract another part--he is the joiner--he sees
how they join.
He says indifferently and alike, How are you, friend? to the
President at his levee,
And he says, Good-day, my brother! to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-
field,
And both understand him, and know that his speech is right.
He walks with perfect ease in the Capitol,
He walks among the Congress, and one Representative says to another,
Here is our equal, appearing and new.
Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic,
And the soldiers suppose him to be a soldier, and the sailors that he
has follow'd the sea, 40
And the authors take him for an author, and the artists for an
artist,
And the laborers perceive he could labor with them and love them;
No matter what the work is, that he is the one to follow it, or has
follow'd it,
No matter what the nation, that he might find his brothers and
sisters there.
The English believe he comes of their English stock,
A Jew to the Jew he seems--a Russ to the Russ--usual and near,
removed from none.
Whoever he looks at in the traveler's coffee-house claims him,
The Italian or Frenchman is sure, and the German is sure, and the
Spaniard is sure, and the island Cuban is sure;
The engineer, the deck-hand on the great lakes, or on the
Mississippi, or St. Lawrence, or Sacramento, or Hudson, or
Paumanok Sound, claims him.
The gentleman of perf
Scheme | AAB AAC DXXC EFXDG FXHCXXBXBAIXAB XJEKG ABX XLX XMEH BDJX AXK XEHXX NBAXD FAL XBBXXGXXEA XAM INANAI J |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111011101101 1010011111100101 1 011111100101110 110111010011110 1111101 011010111110111 1011101110111 011011100110110111 10110111 1111111111110100 10 1101011010101101 1 11010111 10010011010110 100 00110110001101 111101 10100100010010101 1 0111010010010100 1 010010010101001001 11 10110111111101111 010010 001001010111111111 1010 1110110 111111011101 11011101010010100 100010010101101 10111001011011 1101 1111011001101101 11110110 011010010 1111111111001011 10010010 1100100110101 11011011010 110001001011110 110 01001100101111110 01001011111 11011111100110101 1101 110101001110111101 010111 010110111111111 10001011100101110001 10111011100110110 101010101010110 11111001011101011 111 111001111110 101110 0111111011110010 1 010110111111 11101100100 110101001010011010 11101001001 100101110010 001001111010001011 11001 0010111110001011 10 0010001111011011 110101111101110111 101 110101011111100 101 010011111101 01101110110110001 0111 0101110010010111 00101101100101100 101100101011 01010111011110 010111010101101 1111 010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 4,376 |
Words | 705 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 18 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 4, 5, 14, 5, 3, 3, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, 3, 10, 3, 6, 1 |
Lines Amount | 84 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 170 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 3:34 min read
- 57 Views
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"Now List To My Morning's Romanza" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38077/now-list-to-my-morning%27s-romanza>.
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