An Ended Day
The soothing sanity and blitheness of completion,The pomp and hurried contest-glare and rush are done;Now triumph! transformation! jubilate!
From east and west across the horizon’s edge,Two mighty masterful vessels sailers steal upon us:But we’ll make race a-time upon the seas--a battle-contest yet! bearlively there!(Our joys of strife and derring-do to the last!)Put on the old ship all her power to-day!Crowd top-sail, top-gallant and royal studding-sails,Out challenge and defiance--flags and flaunting pennants added,As we take to the open--take to the deepest, freest waters.
Words in this poem
- sanity n.
- The condition or quality of being sane; soundness of health of body or mind, especially of the mind; saneness. [L. saniras, from sanus sound, healthy. See Sane.]
- blitheness n.
- The state of being blithe.
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- jubilate n.
- The third Sunday after Easter; -- so called because the introit is the 66th Psalm, which, in the Latin version, begins with the words, [L., imperat. of jubilare to shout for joy.]
- masterful a.
- Inclined to play the master; domineering; imperious; arbitrary.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Ended Day 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, An Ended Day, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/an-ended-day.html, id L04126.
Form and metre
An Ended Day is 12 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 AA- completionA · doneA · jubilate
- 2 --AA----- edge · us · bearA · thereA · last · day · sails · added · waters
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The soothing sanity and blitheness of completion, | 13 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘·˘/˘ |
| The pomp and hurried contest-glare and rush are done; | 12 | ···/˘/˘····· |
| Now triumph! transformation! jubilate! | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘˘ |
| From east and west across the horizon’s edge, | 11 | ····˘/·˘/˘· |
| Two mighty masterful vessels sailers steal upon us: | 14 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘/˘···· |
| But we’ll make race a-time upon the seas--a battle-contest yet! bear | 17 | ···········/˘/˘·· |
| lively there! | 3 | /˘· |
| (Our joys of strife and derring-do to the last!) | 12 | /˘····/˘···· |
| Put on the old ship all her power to-day! | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Crowd top-sail, top-gallant and royal studding-sails, | 12 | ····/˘·/˘/˘· |
| Out challenge and defiance--flags and flaunting pennants added, | 15 | ·/˘·˘/˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
| As we take to the open--take to the deepest, freest waters. | 16 | ·····/˘···/˘/˘/˘ |
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.