Broadway
What hurrying human tides, or day or night!What passions, winnings, losses, ardors, swim thy waters!What whirls of evil, bliss and sorrow, stem thee!What curious questioning glances--glints of love!Leer, envy, scorn, contempt, hope, aspiration!Thou portal--thou arena--thou of the myriad long-drawn lines and groups!(Could but thy flagstones, curbs, facades, tell their inimitable tales;Thy windows rich, and huge hotels--thy side-walks wide;)Thou of the endless sliding, mincing, shuffling feet!Thou, like the parti-colored world itself--like infinite, teeming,mocking life!Thou visor’d, vast, unspeakable show and lesson!
Words in this poem
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- aspiration n.
- The act of aspirating; the pronunciation of a letter with a full or strong emission of breath; an aspirated sound. [L. aspiratio, fr. aspirare: cf. F. aspiration.]
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- inimitable a.
- Not capable of being imitated, copied, or counterfeited; beyond imitation; surpassingly excellent; matchless; unrivaled; exceptional; unique; as, an inimitable style; inimitable eloquence. [L. inimitabilis: cf. F. inimitable. See In- not, and Imitable.]
- mincing a.
- That minces; characterized by primness or affected nicety.
- teeming a.
- Prolific; productive.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Broadway 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, Broadway, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/broadway.html, id L04093.
Form and metre
Broadway is 12 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 84% 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.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What hurrying human tides, or day or night! | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘····· |
| What passions, winnings, losses, ardors, swim thy waters! | 13 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘··/˘ |
| What whirls of evil, bliss and sorrow, stem thee! | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| What curious questioning glances--glints of love! | 12 | ·/˘˘/˘˘/˘··· |
| Leer, envy, scorn, contempt, hope, aspiration! | 11 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/˘ |
| Thou portal--thou arena--thou of the myriad long-drawn lines and groups! | 18 | ·/˘·˘/˘···/˘˘····· |
| (Could but thy flagstones, curbs, facades, tell their inimitable tales; | 16 | ···/··˘/··˘/˘˘˘· |
| Thy windows rich, and huge hotels--thy side-walks wide;) | 12 | ·/˘···˘/···· |
| Thou of the endless sliding, mincing, shuffling feet! | 12 | ···/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Thou, like the parti-colored world itself--like infinite, teeming, | 16 | ···/˘/˘·˘/·/˘˘/˘ |
| mocking life! | 3 | /˘· |
| Thou visor’d, vast, unspeakable show and lesson! | 12 | ····˘/˘˘··/˘ |
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.