Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me?
Are you the new person drawn toward me?To begin with take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose;Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction?Do you think I am trusty and faithful?Do you see no further than this facade, this smooth and tolerantmanner of me?Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?Have you no thought O dreamer that it may be all maya, illusion?
Words in this poem
- tolerant a.
- Inclined to tolerate; favoring toleration; forbearing; ingulgent. [L. tolerans, p.pr. of tolerare to tolerate: cf. F. tolérant. See Tolerate.]
- dreamer n.
- One who dreams.
- maya n.
- The name for the doctrine of the unreality of matter, called, in English, idealism; hence, nothingness; vanity; illusion.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me? 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, Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me?, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/are-you-the-new-person-drawn-toward-me.html, id L03869.
Form and metre
Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me? is 10 lines in a single stanza. 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 14.1 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% 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-B-CB-ACC meA · suppose · idealB · lover · satisfactionC · faithfulB · tolerant · meA · manC · illusionC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Are you the new person drawn toward me? | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| To begin with take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose; | 20 | ·˘/··/˘··/˘·/˘˘···˘/ |
| Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal? | 12 | ··˘/······˘/ |
| Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover? | 15 | ·····/˘···˘/·/˘ |
| Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction? | 17 | ····/˘····˘/··˘/˘ |
| Do you think I am trusty and faithful? | 10 | ·····/˘·/˘ |
| Do you see no further than this facade, this smooth and tolerant | 16 | ····/˘··˘/···/˘˘ |
| manner of me? | 4 | /˘·· |
| Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man? | 20 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘·······˘/˘· |
| Have you no thought O dreamer that it may be all maya, illusion? | 17 | ·····/˘·····/˘˘/˘ |
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.