Analysis of The Centerarian's Story
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
GIVE me your hand, old Revolutionary;
The hill-top is nigh--but a few steps, (make room, gentlemen;)
Up the path you have follow'd me well, spite of your hundred and
extra years;
You can walk, old man, though your eyes are almost done;
Your faculties serve you, and presently I must have them serve me.
Rest, while I tell what the crowd around us means;
On the plain below, recruits are drilling and exercising;
There is the camp--one regiment departs to-morrow;
Do you hear the officers giving the orders?
Do you hear the clank of the muskets? 10
Why, what comes over you now, old man?
Why do you tremble, and clutch my hand so convulsively?
The troops are but drilling--they are yet surrounded with smiles;
Around them, at hand, the well-drest friends, and the women;
While splendid and warm the afternoon sun shines down;
Green the midsummer verdure, and fresh blows the dallying breeze,
O'er proud and peaceful cities, and arm of the sea between.
But drill and parade are over--they march back to quarters;
Only hear that approval of hands! hear what a clapping!
As wending, the crowds now part and disperse--but we, old man, 20
Not for nothing have I brought you hither--we must remain;
You to speak in your turn, and I to listen and tell.
When I clutch'd your hand, it was not with terror;
But suddenly, pouring about me here, on every side,
And below there where the boys were drilling, and up the slopes they
ran,
And where tents are pitch'd, and wherever you see, south and south-
east and south-west,
Over hills, across lowlands, and in the skirts of woods,
And along the shores, in mire (now fill'd over), came again, and
suddenly raged,
As eighty-five years agone, no mere parade receiv'd with applause of
friends,
But a battle, which I took part in myself--aye, long ago as it is, I
took part in it, 30
Walking then this hill-top, this same ground.
Aye, this is the ground;
My blind eyes, even as I speak, behold it re-peopled from graves;
The years recede, pavements and stately houses disappear;
Rude forts appear again, the old hoop'd guns are mounted;
I see the lines of rais'd earth stretching from river to bay;
I mark the vista of waters, I mark the uplands and slopes:
Here we lay encamp'd--it was this time in summer also.
As I talk, I remember all--I remember the Declaration;
It was read here--the whole army paraded--it was read to us here; 40
By his staff surrounded, the General stood in the middle--he held up
his unsheath'd sword,
It glitter'd in the sun in full sight of the army.
'Twas a bold act then;
The English war-ships had just arrived--the king had sent them from
over the sea;
We could watch down the lower bay where they lay at anchor,
And the transports, swarming with soldiers.
A few days more, and they landed--and then the battle.
Twenty thousand were brought against us,
A veteran force, furnish'd with good artillery.
I tell not now the whole of the battle; 50
But one brigade, early in the forenoon, order'd forward to engage the
red-coats;
Of that brigade I tell, and how steadily it march'd,
And how long and how well it stood, confronting death.
Who do you think that was, marching steadily, sternly confronting
death?
It was the brigade of the youngest men, two thousand strong,
Rais'd in Virginia and Maryland, and many of them known personally to
the General.
Jauntily forward they went with quick step toward Gowanus' waters;
Till of a sudden, unlook'd for, by defiles through the woods, gain'd
at night,
The British advancing, wedging in from the east, fiercely playing
their guns,
That brigade of the youngest was cut off, and at the enemy's
mercy. 60
The General watch'd them from this hill;
They made repeated desperate attempts to burst their environment;
Then drew close together, very compact, their flag flying in the
middle;
But O from the hills how the cannon were thinning and thinning them!
It sickens me yet, that slaughter!
I saw the moisture gather in drops on the face of the General;
Scheme | AXBCDA XEFGC HIXDXJXGE HXI KXLHXXXBXXXXXM MXXXLXF DXXXA XXAKG I XA INXXO EOXXI GXXEXJA IXNIX KI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111110100 01111101111100 101111011111100 101 11111111111 1100110100111111 11111010111 10101011100100 1101110001110 111010010010 11101101 111101111 11110011111 01111011101011 0111101110010 11001001111 101101011011 101010100110101 11001110111110 10110101111010 11001110011111 11101111101101 1110110111001 11111111110 110010011111001 001110101001011 1 01111001011101 1011 101011000111 001010111101010 1001 1101111101011011 1 101011110111011111 1101 101111111 11101 1111011101111011 0101100101001 1101010111110 11011111011011 110101101101001 11101111101010 1111010110100010 11110110010111111 111010010010010111 111 1100010111010 10111 010111101011111 1001 11110101111110 000110110 0111011001010 101001011 0100110110100 1111011010 11011000110101010 11 1101110110011 011011110101 1111111010010010 1 11001101011101 10010010001011110001 0100 100101111101110 1101011111011 11 010010101011010 11 1011010111010100 10 010011111 1101010011110100 1110101010111000 10 1110110100100101 1111110 11010100110110100 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 4,412 |
Words | 699 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 15 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 5, 9, 3, 14, 7, 5, 5, 1, 2, 5, 5, 7, 5, 2 |
Lines Amount | 81 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 204 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 57 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 21, 2023
- 3:35 min read
- 49 Views
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"The Centerarian's Story" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38166/the-centerarian%27s-story>.
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