As I Sit Writing Here
As I sit writing here, sick and grown old,Not my least burden is that dulness of the years, querilities,Ungracious glooms, aches, lethargy, constipation, whimpering ennui,May filter in my dally songs.
Words in this poem
- ungracious a.
- Not gracious; showing no grace or kindness; being without good will; unfeeling.
- lethargy n.
- Morbid drowsiness; continued or profound sleep, from which a person can scarcely be awaked. [F. léthargie, L. letgargia, Gr. Lethe.]
- constipation n.
- Act of crowding anything into a less compass, or the state of being crowded or pressed together; condensation. [L. constipatio a crowding together: cf.F. constipation.]
- ennui n.
- A feeling of weariness and disgust; dullness and languor of spirits, arising from satiety or want of interest; tedium. T. Gray. [F., fr. L. in odio in hatred. See Annoy.]
- dally v. i.
- To waste time in effeminate or voluptuous pleasures, or in idleness; to fool away time; to delay unnecessarily; to tarry; to trifle. [OE. , dailien; cf. Icel. pylja to talk, G. dallen, dalen, dahlen, to trifle, talk nonsense, OSw. tule a droll or funny man; or AS. dol foolish, E. dull.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
As I Sit Writing Here 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, As I Sit Writing Here, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/as-i-sit-writing-here.html, id L04078.
Form and metre
As I Sit Writing Here is 4 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 12.8 syllables. 1 line ends 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 |
|---|---|---|
| As I sit writing here, sick and grown old, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Not my least burden is that dulness of the years, querilities, | 15 | ···/˘·········· |
| Ungracious glooms, aches, lethargy, constipation, whimpering ennui, | 18 | ˘/˘··/˘˘·˘/˘/˘˘˘/˘ |
| May filter in my dally songs. | 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.