Whittier
Not o'er thy dust let there be spentThe gush of maudlin sentiment;Such drift as that is not for thee,Whose life and deeds and songs agree,Sublime in their simplicity.
Nor shall the sorrowing tear be shed.O singer sweet, thou art not dead!In spite of time's malignant chill,With living fire thy songs shall thrill,And men shall say, "He liveth still!"
Great poets never die, for EarthDoth count their lives of too great worthTo lose them from her treasured store;So shalt thou live for evermore--Though far thy form from mortal ken--Deep in the hearts and minds of men.
Words in this poem
- maudlin a.
- Tearful; easily moved to tears; exciting to tears; excessively sentimental; weak and silly. [From Maudlin, a contr. of Magdalen, OE. Maudeleyne, who is drawn by painters with eyes swelled and red with weeping.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Whittier is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, Whittier, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/whittier.html, id L00503.
Form and metre
Whittier is 16 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 88% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABB- spentA · sentimentA · theeB · agreeB · simplicity
- 2 AABBB shedA · deadA · chillB · thrillB · stillB
- 3 AABBCC earthA · worthA · storeB · evermoreB · kenC · menC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Not o'er thy dust let there be spent | 8 | ········ |
| The gush of maudlin sentiment; | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Such drift as that is not for thee, | 8 | ········ |
| Whose life and deeds and songs agree, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Sublime in their simplicity. | 8 | ˘/··˘/˘˘ |
| Nor shall the sorrowing tear be shed. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O singer sweet, thou art not dead! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In spite of time's malignant chill, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| With living fire thy songs shall thrill, | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| And men shall say, "He liveth still!" | 8 | ········ |
| Great poets never die, for Earth | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Doth count their lives of too great worth | 8 | ········ |
| To lose them from her treasured store; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| So shalt thou live for evermore-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Though far thy form from mortal ken-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Deep in the hearts and minds of men. | 8 | ········ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.