Analysis of Song At Sunset
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
SPLENDOR of ended day, floating and filling me!
Hour prophetic--hour resuming the past!
Inflating my throat--you, divine average!
You, Earth and Life, till the last ray gleams, I sing.
Open mouth of my Soul, uttering gladness,
Eyes of my Soul, seeing perfection,
Natural life of me, faithfully praising things;
Corroborating forever the triumph of things.
Illustrious every one!
Illustrious what we name space--sphere of unnumber'd spirits; 10
Illustrious the mystery of motion, in all beings, even the tiniest
insect;
Illustrious the attribute of speech--the senses--the body;
Illustrious the passing light! Illustrious the pale reflection on the
new moon in the western sky!
Illustrious whatever I see, or hear, or touch, to the last.
Good in all,
In the satisfaction and aplomb of animals,
In the annual return of the seasons,
In the hilarity of youth,
In the strength and flush of manhood,
In the grandeur and exquisiteness of old age, 20
In the superb vistas of Death.
Wonderful to depart;
Wonderful to be here!
The heart, to jet the all-alike and innocent blood!
To breathe the air, how delicious!
To speak! to walk! to seize something by the hand!
To prepare for sleep, for bed--to look on my rose-color'd flesh;
To be conscious of my body, so satisfied, so large;
To be this incredible God I am;
To have gone forth among other Gods--these men and women I love. 30
Wonderful how I celebrate you and myself!
How my thoughts play subtly at the spectacles around!
How the clouds pass silently overhead!
How the earth darts on and on! and how the sun, moon, stars, dart on
and on!
How the water sports and sings! (Surely it is alive!)
How the trees rise and stand up--with strong trunks--with branches
and leaves!
(Surely there is something more in each of the tree--some living
Soul.)
O amazement of things! even the least particle!
O spirituality of things!
O strain musical, flowing through ages and continents--now reaching
me and America! 40
I take your strong chords--I intersperse them, and cheerfully pass
them forward.
I too carol the sun, usher'd, or at noon, or, as now, setting,
I too throb to the brain and beauty of the earth, and of all the
growths of the earth,
I too have felt the resistless call of myself.
As I sail'd down the Mississippi,
As I wander'd over the prairies,
As I have lived--As I have look'd through my windows, my eyes,
As I went forth in the morning--As I beheld the light breaking in the
east;
As I bathed on the beach of the Eastern Sea, and again on the beach
of the Western Sea;
As I roam'd the streets of inland Chicago--whatever streets I have
roam'd; 50
Or cities, or silent woods, or peace, or even amid the sights of war;
Wherever I have been, I have charged myself with contentment and
triumph.
I sing the Equalities, modern or old,
I sing the endless finales of things;
I say Nature continues--Glory continues;
I praise with electric voice;
For I do not see one imperfection in the universe;
And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the
universe.
O setting sun! though the time has come,
I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated
adoration. 60
Scheme | ABXC DEDD EDXXAFXB XDDXXXX XXXDXXXXX GXXHHXDDCX XDCFDX CFXG ADDFXXAXXXXX XDDDDFD XXE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101101100101 100101001001 01011101100 11011011111 1011111001 111110010 100111100101 010001001011 01001001 0100111111110 010001001100110100100 1 010001011010010 0100010101000101010 1100101 010010111111101 101 000100011100 00100011010 00010011 0010111 000101111 00011011 100101 100111 0111010101001 11011010 11111110101 101111111111101 1110111011011 1110100111 1111011011101011 1001110101 11111001010001 1011100101 101110101011111 01 1010101101101 1011011111110 01 101110101101110 1 1010111001100 10010011 11100101100100110 100100 11111101101001 110 1110011011111110 1111010101010110 1101 111101111 11110010 111010010 11111111111011 11110010111011000 1 11110110101001101 10101 11101110110111 1 110110111110010111 010111111110100 10 11011011 11010111 111001010010 1110101 1111110100010 011111110101001100 10 110110111 111010111110100 010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,540 |
Words | 551 |
Sentences | 37 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 8, 7, 9, 10, 6, 4, 12, 7, 3 |
Lines Amount | 74 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 221 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 65 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 17, 2023
- 2:47 min read
- 122 Views
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"Song At Sunset" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38140/song-at-sunset>.
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