A Christmas Greeting
Welcome, Brazilian brother--thy ample place is ready;A loving hand--a smile from the north--a sunny instant hall!(Let the future care for itself, where it reveals its troubles,impedimentas,Ours, ours the present throe, the democratic aim, the acceptance andthe faith;)To thee to-day our reaching arm, our turning neck--to thee from usthe expectant eye,Thou cluster free! thou brilliant lustrous one! thou, learning well,The true lesson of a nation’s light in the sky,(More shining than the Cross, more than the Crown,)The height to be superb humanity.
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- throe n.
- Extreme pain; violent pang; anguish; agony; especially, one of the pangs of travail in childbirth, or purturition. [OE. , , AS. a threatening, oppression, suffering, perhaps influenced by Icel. a throe, a pang, a longing; cf. AS. to suffer.]
- superb a.
- Grand; magnificent; august; stately; as, a superb edifice; a superb colonnade. [F. superbe, L. superbus, fr. super over. See Super-.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Christmas Greeting is in the public domain. This text is taken from Leaves of Grass, Project Gutenberg ebook #1322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walt Whitman, A Christmas Greeting, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/a-christmas-greeting.html, id L04134.
Form and metre
A Christmas Greeting is 12 lines in a single stanza. 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -------A-A-- ready · hall · troubles · impedimentas · and · faith · us · eyeA · well · skyA · crown · humanity
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome, Brazilian brother--thy ample place is ready; | 14 | /˘˘/˘/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| A loving hand--a smile from the north--a sunny instant hall! | 15 | ·/˘·······/˘/˘· |
| (Let the future care for itself, where it reveals its troubles, | 15 | ··/˘··˘/··˘/·/˘ |
| impedimentas, | 5 | ····· |
| Ours, ours the present throe, the democratic aim, the acceptance and | 19 | /˘/˘·/˘···˘/˘··˘/˘· |
| the faith;) | 2 | ·· |
| To thee to-day our reaching arm, our turning neck--to thee from us | 18 | ····/˘/˘·/˘/˘····· |
| the expectant eye, | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| Thou cluster free! thou brilliant lustrous one! thou, learning well, | 14 | ·/˘··/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The true lesson of a nation’s light in the sky, | 12 | ··/˘··/˘···· |
| (More shining than the Cross, more than the Crown,) | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The height to be superb humanity. | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘˘ |
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.