Earth, My Likeness
Earth, my likeness,Though you look so impassive, ample and spheric there,I now suspect that is not all;I now suspect there is something fierce in you eligible to burst forth,For an athlete is enamour’d of me, and I of him,But toward him there is something fierce and terrible in me eligibleto burst forth,I dare not tell it in words, not even in these songs.
Words in this poem
- impassive a.
- Not susceptible of pain or suffering; apathetic; impassible; unmoved.
- spheric a.
- Having the form of a sphere; like a sphere; globular; orbicular; as, a spherical body. [L. sphaericus, Gr. sphérique.]
- eligible a.
- That may be selected; proper or qualified to be chosen; legally qualified to be elected and to hold office. [F. éligible, fr. L. eligere. See Elect.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Earth, My Likeness 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, Earth, My Likeness, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/earth-my-likeness.html, id L03885.
Form and metre
Earth, My Likeness is 8 lines in a single stanza. 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.5 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 --AB-AB- likeness · there · allA · forthB · him · eligibleA · forthB · songs
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Earth, my likeness, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Though you look so impassive, ample and spheric there, | 13 | ····˘/˘/˘···· |
| I now suspect that is not all; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| I now suspect there is something fierce in you eligible to burst forth, | 18 | ··˘/··/˘···/˘˘˘··· |
| For an athlete is enamour’d of me, and I of him, | 14 | ··/··········· |
| But toward him there is something fierce and terrible in me eligible | 19 | ······/˘··/˘˘··/˘˘˘ |
| to burst forth, | 3 | ··· |
| I dare not tell it in words, not even in these songs. | 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.