As the Greek’s Signal Flame
As the Greek’s signal flame, by antique records told,Rose from the hill-top, like applause and glory,Welcoming in fame some special veteran, hero,With rosy tinge reddening the land he’d served,So I aloft from Mannahatta’s ship-fringed shore,Lift high a kindled brand for thee, Old Poet.
About this text
As the Greek’s Signal Flame 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 the Greek’s Signal Flame, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/as-the-greek-s-signal-flame.html, id L04115.
Form and metre
As the Greek’s Signal Flame is 6 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The lines average 11.7 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 |
|---|---|---|
| As the Greek’s signal flame, by antique records told, | 12 | ···/˘··˘/˘/· |
| Rose from the hill-top, like applause and glory, | 11 | ······˘/·/˘ |
| Welcoming in fame some special veteran, hero, | 13 | /˘˘···/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| With rosy tinge reddening the land he’d served, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘˘···· |
| So I aloft from Mannahatta’s ship-fringed shore, | 12 | ··˘/········ |
| Lift high a kindled brand for thee, Old Poet. | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
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.