Death of General Grant
As one by one withdraw the lofty actors,From that great play on history’s stage eterne,That lurid, partial act of war and peace--of old and new contending,Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, and many a long suspense;All past--and since, in countless graves receding, mellowing,Victor’s and vanquish’d--Lincoln’s and Lee’s--now thou with them,Man of the mighty days--and equal to the days!Thou from the prairies!--tangled and many-vein’d and hard has been thy part,To admiration has it been enacted!
Words in this poem
- lurid a.
- Pale yellow; ghastly pale; wan; gloomy; dismal. [L. luridus.]
- countless a.
- Incapable of being counted; not ascertainable; innumerable.
- admiration n.
- Wonder; astonishment. [F., fr. L. admiratio. See Admire.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Death of General Grant 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, Death of General Grant, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/death-of-general-grant.html, id L25590.
Form and metre
Death of General Grant is 9 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 84%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.8 syllables. 12 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 11% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As one by one withdraw the lofty actors, | 11 | ····˘/·/˘/˘ |
| From that great play on history’s stage eterne, | 11 | ·····/˘˘·˘/ |
| That lurid, partial act of war and peace--of old and new contending, | 17 | ·/˘/˘·········˘/˘ |
| Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, and many a long suspense; | 15 | ······˘/·/˘··˘/ |
| All past--and since, in countless graves receding, mellowing, | 14 | ·····/˘·˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Victor’s and vanquish’d--Lincoln’s and Lee’s--now thou with them, | 13 | /˘·/˘/˘······ |
| Man of the mighty days--and equal to the days! | 12 | ···/˘··/˘··· |
| Thou from the prairies!--tangled and many-vein’d and hard has been thy part, | 17 | ···/˘/˘·/˘······· |
| To admiration has it been enacted! | 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.