Analysis of Whispers Of Heavenly Death

Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)




   WHISPERS of heavenly death, murmur'd I hear;
   Labial gossip of night--sibilant chorals;
   Footsteps gently ascending--mystical breezes, wafted soft and low;
   Ripples of unseen rivers--tides of a current, flowing, forever
         flowing;
   (Or is it the plashing of tears? the measureless waters of human
         tears?)

I see, just see, skyward, great cloud-masses;
   Mournfully, slowly they roll, silently swelling and mixing;
   With, at times, a half-dimm'd, sadden'd, far-off star,
   Appearing and disappearing.

(Some parturition, rather--some solemn, immortal birth:            10
   On the frontiers, to eyes impenetrable,
   Some Soul is passing over.)


Scheme XXXABXX XBXB XXA
Poetic Form
Metre 10110011011 11011110 1100101001010101 10101101101010010 10 11101110110110 1 1111101110 1101110010010 11101110111 0100010 11101100101 10011101000 1111010
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 674
Words 91
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 7, 4, 3
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 160
Words per stanza (avg) 33
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

28 sec read
56

Walt Whitman

Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. more…

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    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
    A A turn
    B Dithyramb
    C Line break
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