Full of Life Now
Full of life now, compact, visible,I, forty years old the eighty-third year of the States,To one a century hence or any number of centuries hence,To you yet unborn these, seeking you.
When you read these I that was visible am become invisible,Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me,Fancying how happy you were if I could be with you and become your comrade;Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you.)
Words in this poem
- unborn a.
- Not born; no yet brought into life; being still to appear; future.
- realizing a.
- Serving to make real, or to impress on the mind as a reality; as, a realizing view of the danger incurred.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Full of Life Now 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, Full of Life Now, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/full-of-life-now.html, id L03894.
Form and metre
Full of Life Now is 8 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 72% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 15.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Full of life now, compact, visible, | 9 | ····/˘/˘˘ |
| I, forty years old the eighty-third year of the States, | 13 | ·/˘···/˘····· |
| To one a century hence or any number of centuries hence, | 17 | ···/˘˘··/˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| To you yet unborn these, seeking you. | 9 | ···//·/˘· |
| When you read these I that was visible am become invisible, | 17 | ·······/˘˘·˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me, | 18 | ····/˘/˘˘/·˘·/˘/˘· |
| Fancying how happy you were if I could be with you and become your comrade; | 20 | /˘˘·/˘·········˘/·/· |
| Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you.) | 19 | ···········/˘······ |
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.