Ages and Ages Returning at Intervals
Ages and ages returning at intervals,Undestroy’d, wandering immortal,Lusty, phallic, with the potent original loins, perfectly sweet,I, chanter of Adamic songs,Through the new garden the West, the great cities calling,Deliriate, thus prelude what is generated, offering these, offering myself,Bathing myself, bathing my songs in Sex,Offspring of my loins.
Words in this poem
- phallic a.
- Of or pertaining to the phallus, or to phallism.
- chanter n.
- One who chants; a singer or songster. [Cf. F. chanteur.]
- adamic a.
- Of or pertaining to Adam, or resembling him. Adamic earth, a name given to common red clay, from a notion that Adam means red earth.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ages and Ages Returning at Intervals 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, Ages and Ages Returning at Intervals, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/ages-and-ages-returning-at-intervals.html, id L03854.
Form and metre
Ages and Ages Returning at Intervals is 8 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ages and ages returning at intervals, | 12 | /˘·/˘˘/˘·/˘˘ |
| Undestroy’d, wandering immortal, | 9 | ···/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Lusty, phallic, with the potent original loins, perfectly sweet, | 17 | /˘/˘··/˘˘/˘˘·/˘˘· |
| I, chanter of Adamic songs, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Through the new garden the West, the great cities calling, | 13 | ···/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Deliriate, thus prelude what is generated, offering these, offering myself, | 21 | ····/···/˘·˘/˘˘·/˘˘·/ |
| Bathing myself, bathing my songs in Sex, | 10 | /˘·//˘···· |
| Offspring of my loins. | 5 | /···· |
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.