Faces
Sauntering the pavement or riding the country by-road, faces!Faces of friendship, precision, caution, suavity, ideality,The spiritual-prescient face, the always welcome common benevolent face,The face of the singing of music, the grand faces of natural lawyersand judges broad at the back-top,The faces of hunters and fishers bulged at the brows, the shavedblanch’d faces of orthodox citizens,The pure, extravagant, yearning, questioning artist’s face,The ugly face of some beautiful soul, the handsome detested ordespised face,The sacred faces of infants, the illuminated face of the mother ofmany children,The face of an amour, the face of veneration,The face as of a dream, the face of an immobile rock,The face withdrawn of its good and bad, a castrated face,A wild hawk, his wings clipp’d by the clipper,A stallion that yielded at last to the thongs and knife of the gelder.
Sauntering the pavement thus, or crossing the ceaseless ferry, facesand faces and faces,I see them and complain not, and am content with all.
This now is too lamentable a face for a man,Some abject louse asking leave to be, cringing for it,Some milk-nosed maggot blessing what lets it wrig to its hole.
This face is a dog’s snout sniffing for garbage,Snakes nest in that mouth, I hear the sibilant threat.
This face is a haze more chill than the arctic sea,Its sleepy and wobbling icebergs crunch as they go.
This is a face of bitter herbs, this an emetic, they need no label,And more of the drug-shelf, laudanum, caoutchouc, or hog’s-lard.
This face is an epilepsy, its wordless tongue gives out the unearthly cry,Its veins down the neck distend, its eyes roll till they shownothing but their whites,Its teeth grit, the palms of the hands are cut by the turn’d-in nails,The man falls struggling and foaming to the ground, while hespeculates well.
This face is bitten by vermin and worms,And this is some murderer’s knife with a half-pull’d scabbard.
This face owes to the sexton his dismalest fee,An unceasing death-bell tolls there.
Features of my equals would you trick me with your creas’d andcadaverous march?Well, you cannot trick me.
I see your rounded never-erased flow,I see ’neath the rims of your haggard and mean disguises.
Splay and twist as you like, poke with the tangling fores of fishes or rats,You’ll be unmuzzled, you certainly will.
I saw the face of the most smear’d and slobbering idiot they had atthe asylum,And I knew for my consolation what they knew not,I knew of the agents that emptied and broke my brother,The same wait to clear the rubbish from the fallen tenement,And I shall look again in a score or two of ages,And I shall meet the real landlord perfect and unharm’d, every inchas good as myself.
The Lord advances, and yet advances,Always the shadow in front, always the reach’d hand bringing up thelaggards.
Out of this face emerge banners and horses--O superb! I see what is coming,I see the high pioneer-caps, see staves of runners clearing the way,I hear victorious drums.
This face is a life-boat,This is the face commanding and bearded, it asks no odds of the rest,This face is flavor’d fruit ready for eating,This face of a healthy honest boy is the programme of all good.
These faces bear testimony slumbering or awake,They show their descent from the Master himself.
Off the word I have spoken I except not one--red, white, black, areall deific,In each house is the ovum, it comes forth after a thousand years.
Spots or cracks at the windows do not disturb me,Tall and sufficient stand behind and make signs to me,I read the promise and patiently wait.
This is a full-grown lily’s face,She speaks to the limber-hipp’d man near the garden pickets,Come here she blushingly cries, Come nigh to me limber-hipp’d man,Stand at my side till I lean as high as I can upon you,Fill me with albescent honey, bend down to me,Rub to me with your chafing beard, rub to my breast and shoulders.
The old face of the mother of many children,Whist! I am fully content.
Lull’d and late is the smoke of the First-day morning,It hangs low over the rows of trees by the fences,It hangs thin by the sassafras and wild-cherry and cat-brier under them.
I saw the rich ladies in full dress at the soiree,I heard what the singers were singing so long,Heard who sprang in crimson youth from the white froth and the water-blue.
Behold a woman!She looks out from her quaker cap, her face is clearer and morebeautiful than the sky.
She sits in an armchair under the shaded porch of the farmhouse,The sun just shines on her old white head.
Her ample gown is of cream-hued linen,Her grandsons raised the flax, and her grand-daughters spun it withthe distaff and the wheel.
The melodious character of the earth,The finish beyond which philosophy cannot go and does not wish to go,The justified mother of men.
Words in this poem 43
- suavity n.
- Sweetness to the taste. Sir T. Browne. [L. suavitas: cf. F. suavité.]
- ideality n.
- The quality or state of being ideal.
- artist n.
- One who practices some mechanic art or craft; an artisan. [F. artiste, LL. artista, fr. L. ars. See Art, n., and cf. Artiste.]
- amour n.
- Love; affection. [F., fr. L. amor love.]
- immobile a.
- Incapable of being moved; immovable; fixed; stable. Prof. [L. immobilis: cf. F. immobile. See Immobility.]
- clipper n.
- One who clips; specifically, one who clips off the edges of coin.
- stallion n.
- A male horse not castrated; a male horse kept for breeding. [OE. stalon, OF. estalon, F. étalon, fr. OHG. stal a stable. See Stall, n.]
- gelder n.
- One who gelds or castrates.
- ceaseless a.
- Without pause or end; incessant.
- abject a.
- Cast down; low-lying. [L. abjectus, p. p. of abjicere to throw away; ab + jacere to throw. See Jet a shooting forth.]
- maggot n.
- The footless larva of any fly. See Larval. [W. macai, pl. maceiod, magiod, a worn or grub; cf. magu to bread.]
- wrig v. i.
- To wriggle. Skelton.
- sniffing n.
- A rapid inspiratory act, in which the mouth is kept shut and the air drawn in through the nose.
- garbage n.
- Offal, as the bowels of an animal or fish; refuse animal or vegetable matter from a kitchen; hence, anything worthless, disgusting, or loathsome. Grainger. [OE. also garbash, perh. orig., that which is purged or cleansed away; cf. OF. garber to make fine, neat, OHG. garawan to make ready, prepare, akin to E. garb dr]
- crunch v. i.
- To chew with force and noise; to craunch. [Prob. of imitative origin; or cf. D. schransen to eat heartily, or E. scrunch.]
- laudanum n.
- Tincture of opium, used for various medical purposes. [Orig. the same wort as ladanum, ladbdanum: cf. F. laudanum, It. laudano, ladano. See Ladanum.]
- wordless a.
- Not using words; not speaking; silent; speechless.
- unearthly a.
- Not terrestrial; supernatural; preternatural; hence, weird; appalling; terrific; as, an unearthly sight or sound.
- vermin n.
- An animal, in general. [OE. vermine, F. vermine, from L. vermis a worm; cf. LL. vermen a worm, L. verminosus full of worms. See Vermicular, Worm.]
- cadaverous a.
- Having the appearance or color of a dead human body; pale; ghastly; as, a cadaverous look. [L. cadaverosus.]
- haggard a.
- Wild or intractable; disposed to break away from duty; untamed; as, a haggard or refractory hawk. Shak [F. hagard; of German origin, and prop. meaning, of the hegde or woods, wild, untamed. See Hedge, 1st Haw, and -ard.]
- splay v. t.
- To display; to spread. [Abbrev. of display.]
- idiot n.
- A man in private station, as distinguished from one holding a public office. [F. idiot, L. idiota an uneducated, ignorant, ill- informed person, Gr. Idiom.]
- asylum n.
- A sanctuary or place of refuge and protection, where criminals and debtors found shelter, and from which they could not be forcibly taken without sacrilege.
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- superb a.
- Grand; magnificent; august; stately; as, a superb edifice; a superb colonnade. [F. superbe, L. superbus, fr. super over. See Super-.]
- pioneer n.
- A soldier detailed or employed to form roads, dig trenches, and make bridges, as an army advances. [F. pionier, orig., a foot soldier, OF. peonier, fr. OF. peon a foot soldier, F. pion. See Pawn in chess.]
- odds n.
- Difference in favor of one and against another; excess of one of two things or numbers over the other; inequality; advantage; superiority; hence, excess of chances; probability. [See Odd, a.]
- deific a.
- Making divine; producing a likeness to God; god-making. [L. deificus; deus god + facere to make: cf. F. déifigue.]
- patiently adv.
- In a patient manner.
- blushingly adv.
- In a blushing manner; with a blush or blushes; as, to answer or confess blushingly.
- albescent a.
- Becoming white or whitish; moderately white. [L. albescens, p. pr. of albescere to grow white, fr. albus white.]
- whist v. t.
- To hush or silence. [From Whist, interj.]
- lull v. t.
- To cause to rest by soothing influences; to compose; to calm; to soothe; to quiet. [Akin to OD. lullen to sing to sleep, G. lullen, Dan. lulle, Sw. lulla; all of imitative origin. Cf. Loll, Lollard.]
- brier n.
- A plant with a slender woody stem bearing stout prickles; especially, species of Rosa, Rubus, and Smilax. [OE. brere, brer, AS. brer, brær; cf. Ir. briar prickle, thorn, brier, pin, Gael. preas bush, brier, W. prys, prysg.]
- soiree n.
- An evening party; -- distinguished from levee, and matinée. [F., fr. soir evening, fr. L. serus late, serum late time. Cf. Serenade.]
- quaker n.
- One who quakes.
- clearer n.
- One who, or that which, clears.
- armchair n.
- A chair with arms to support the elbows or forearms.
- farmhouse n.
- A dwelling house on a farm; a farmer's residence.
- hued a.
- Having color; -- usually in composition; as, bright-hued; many- hued.
- distaff n.
- The staff for holding a bunch of flax, tow, or wool, from which the thread is drawn in spinning by hand. [OE. distaf, dysestafe, AS. distaef; cf. LG. diesse the bunch of flax on a distaff, and E. dizen. See Staff.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Faces 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, Faces, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/faces.html, id L04041.
Form and metre
Faces is 97 lines in 27 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 78% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.3 syllables. 29 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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----A-A----A-- faces · ideality · faceA · lawyers · top · shaved · citizens · faceA · or · faceA · of · children · veneration · rock · faceA · clipper · gelder
- 2 AA- facesA · facesA · all
- 7 A---A- cryA · show · whites · nails · heA · well
- 19 AA- meA · meA · wait
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sauntering the pavement or riding the country by-road, faces! | 16 | /˘˘·/˘·/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| Faces of friendship, precision, caution, suavity, ideality, | 17 | /˘·/˘˘/˘/˘/˘˘···· |
| The spiritual-prescient face, the always welcome common benevolent face, | 21 | ·/˘˘˘/˘˘··/·/˘/˘˘/˘˘· |
| The face of the singing of music, the grand faces of natural lawyers | 19 | ····/˘·/˘··/˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| and judges broad at the back-top, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The faces of hunters and fishers bulged at the brows, the shaved | 15 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘······ |
| blanch’d faces of orthodox citizens, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘˘ |
| The pure, extravagant, yearning, questioning artist’s face, | 14 | ··˘/˘˘/˘/˘˘/˘· |
| The ugly face of some beautiful soul, the handsome detested or | 17 | ·/˘···/˘˘··/˘˘/˘· |
| despised face, | 3 | ˘/· |
| The sacred faces of infants, the illuminated face of the mother of | 20 | ·/˘/˘·/˘·˘/˘·˘···/˘· |
| many children, | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| The face of an amour, the face of veneration, | 13 | ····/˘····˘/˘ |
| The face as of a dream, the face of an immobile rock, | 14 | ··········˘/˘· |
| The face withdrawn of its good and bad, a castrated face, | 14 | ··˘/······/·˘· |
| A wild hawk, his wings clipp’d by the clipper, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| A stallion that yielded at last to the thongs and knife of the gelder. | 17 | ·/˘·/˘·········/˘ |
| Sauntering the pavement thus, or crossing the ceaseless ferry, faces | 17 | /˘˘·/˘··/˘·/˘/˘/˘ |
| and faces and faces, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| I see them and complain not, and am content with all. | 13 | ····˘/···/˘·· |
| This now is too lamentable a face for a man, | 13 | ····˘/˘˘····· |
| Some abject louse asking leave to be, cringing for it, | 13 | ·/˘·/˘···/˘·· |
| Some milk-nosed maggot blessing what lets it wrig to its hole. | 14 | ···/˘/˘······· |
| This face is a dog’s snout sniffing for garbage, | 11 | ······/˘·/˘ |
| Snakes nest in that mouth, I hear the sibilant threat. | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| This face is a haze more chill than the arctic sea, | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Its sleepy and wobbling icebergs crunch as they go. | 13 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘···· |
| This is a face of bitter herbs, this an emetic, they need no label, | 18 | ·····/˘···˘/˘···/˘ |
| And more of the drug-shelf, laudanum, caoutchouc, or hog’s-lard. | 14 | ······/˘˘/˘··· |
| This face is an epilepsy, its wordless tongue gives out the unearthly cry, | 19 | ····/˘·˘·/˘····˘/˘· |
| Its veins down the neck distend, its eyes roll till they show | 13 | ·····˘/······ |
| nothing but their whites, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Its teeth grit, the palms of the hands are cut by the turn’d-in nails, | 15 | ··············· |
| The man falls struggling and foaming to the ground, while he | 14 | ···/˘˘·/˘····· |
| speculates well. | 4 | /˘·· |
| This face is bitten by vermin and worms, | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| And this is some murderer’s knife with a half-pull’d scabbard. | 14 | ····/˘˘·····/˘ |
| This face owes to the sexton his dismalest fee, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘˘· |
| An unceasing death-bell tolls there. | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| Features of my equals would you trick me with your creas’d and | 14 | /˘··/˘········ |
| cadaverous march? | 5 | ˘/˘˘· |
| Well, you cannot trick me. | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| I see your rounded never-erased flow, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘/· |
| I see ’neath the rims of your haggard and mean disguises. | 14 | ·······/˘··˘/˘ |
| Splay and twist as you like, poke with the tangling fores of fishes or rats, | 17 | ·········/˘··/˘·· |
| You’ll be unmuzzled, you certainly will. | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| I saw the face of the most smear’d and slobbering idiot they had at | 18 | ·········/˘˘/˘˘··· |
| the asylum, | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| And I knew for my consolation what they knew not, | 13 | ······˘/˘···· |
| I knew of the agents that emptied and broke my brother, | 14 | ····/˘·/˘···/˘ |
| The same wait to clear the rubbish from the fallen tenement, | 15 | ······/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| And I shall look again in a score or two of ages, | 14 | ····˘/······/˘ |
| And I shall meet the real landlord perfect and unharm’d, every inch | 17 | ······/·˘/·˘//˘˘· |
| as good as myself. | 5 | ····/ |
| The Lord advances, and yet advances, | 10 | ··˘/˘··˘/˘ |
| Always the shadow in front, always the reach’d hand bringing up the | 16 | /··/···/····/˘·· |
| laggards. | 2 | /˘ |
| Out of this face emerge banners and horses--O superb! I see what is coming, | 20 | ····˘//˘·/˘·˘/····/˘ |
| I see the high pioneer-caps, see staves of runners clearing the way, | 17 | ·····˘/····/˘/˘·· |
| I hear victorious drums. | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| This face is a life-boat, | 6 | ······ |
| This is the face commanding and bearded, it asks no odds of the rest, | 17 | ····˘/˘·/˘······· |
| This face is flavor’d fruit ready for eating, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| This face of a healthy honest boy is the programme of all good. | 16 | ····/˘/˘···/···· |
| These faces bear testimony slumbering or awake, | 14 | ·/˘·/˘·˘/˘˘·˘/ |
| They show their descent from the Master himself. | 11 | ···˘/··/˘˘/ |
| Off the word I have spoken I except not one--red, white, black, are | 16 | ·····/˘········· |
| all deific, | 3 | ··· |
| In each house is the ovum, it comes forth after a thousand years. | 16 | ·····/˘······/˘· |
| Spots or cracks at the windows do not disturb me, | 12 | ·····/˘··˘/· |
| Tall and sufficient stand behind and make signs to me, | 13 | ··˘/˘········ |
| I read the promise and patiently wait. | 10 | ···/˘·/˘˘· |
| This is a full-grown lily’s face, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| She speaks to the limber-hipp’d man near the garden pickets, | 14 | ····/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Come here she blushingly cries, Come nigh to me limber-hipp’d man, | 15 | ···/˘˘·····/˘·· |
| Stand at my side till I lean as high as I can upon you, | 15 | ··············· |
| Fill me with albescent honey, bend down to me, | 12 | ···˘/˘/˘···· |
| Rub to me with your chafing beard, rub to my breast and shoulders. | 15 | ·····/˘······/˘ |
| The old face of the mother of many children, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Whist! I am fully content. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Lull’d and late is the smoke of the First-day morning, | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| It hangs low over the rows of trees by the fences, | 13 | ···········/˘ |
| It hangs thin by the sassafras and wild-cherry and cat-brier under them. | 19 | ·····/˘···/˘··/˘··· |
| I saw the rich ladies in full dress at the soiree, | 13 | ····/˘·····˘/ |
| I heard what the singers were singing so long, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| Heard who sprang in crimson youth from the white froth and the water-blue. | 16 | ····/˘·······/˘· |
| Behold a woman! | 5 | ˘/·/˘ |
| She looks out from her quaker cap, her face is clearer and more | 15 | ·····/˘····/˘·· |
| beautiful than the sky. | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| She sits in an armchair under the shaded porch of the farmhouse, | 16 | ····/····/˘···/· |
| The sun just shines on her old white head. | 9 | ········· |
| Her ample gown is of cream-hued linen, | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| Her grandsons raised the flax, and her grand-daughters spun it with | 14 | ·/·······/˘··· |
| the distaff and the wheel. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The melodious character of the earth, | 11 | ·˘/˘˘/˘˘··· |
| The finish beyond which philosophy cannot go and does not wish to go, | 19 | ·/˘···˘/˘˘/˘······· |
| The justified mother of men. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
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