City of Orgies
City of orgies, walks and joys,City whom that I have lived and sung in your midst will one day makeNot the pageants of you, not your shifting tableaus, yourspectacles, repay me,Not the interminable rows of your houses, nor the ships at the wharves,Nor the processions in the streets, nor the bright windows withgoods in them,Nor to converse with learn’d persons, or bear my share in the soireeor feast;Not those, but as I pass O Manhattan, your frequent and swift flashof eyes offering me love,Offering response to my own--these repay me,Lovers, continual lovers, only repay me.
Words in this poem
- soiree n.
- An evening party; -- distinguished from levee, and matinée. [F., fr. soir evening, fr. L. serus late, serum late time. Cf. Serenade.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
City of Orgies 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, City of Orgies, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/city-of-orgies.html, id L03873.
Form and metre
City of Orgies is 13 lines in a single stanza. 76% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.1 syllables. 38% 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-------AA joys · make · your · meA · wharves · with · them · soiree · feast · flash · love · meA · meA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| City of orgies, walks and joys, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| City whom that I have lived and sung in your midst will one day make | 16 | /˘·············· |
| Not the pageants of you, not your shifting tableaus, your | 13 | ··/˘····/˘˘/· |
| spectacles, repay me, | 6 | /˘˘˘/· |
| Not the interminable rows of your houses, nor the ships at the wharves, | 18 | ··˘/˘˘˘···/˘······ |
| Nor the processions in the streets, nor the bright windows with | 14 | ··˘/˘······/˘· |
| goods in them, | 3 | ··· |
| Nor to converse with learn’d persons, or bear my share in the soiree | 16 | ··/˘··/˘······˘/ |
| or feast; | 2 | ·· |
| Not those, but as I pass O Manhattan, your frequent and swift flash | 16 | ·······˘/˘·/˘··· |
| of eyes offering me love, | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| Offering response to my own--these repay me, | 12 | /˘˘˘/····˘/· |
| Lovers, continual lovers, only repay me. | 13 | /˘˘/˘˘/˘/˘˘/· |
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.