Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun
Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling,Give me autumnal fruit ripe and red from the orchard,Give me a field where the unmow’d grass grows,Give me an arbor, give me the trellis’d grape,Give me fresh corn and wheat, give me serene-moving animals teachingcontent,Give me nights perfectly quiet as on high plateaus west of theMississippi, and I looking up at the stars,Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I canwalk undisturb’d,Give me for marriage a sweet-breath’d woman of whom I should never tire,Give me a perfect child, give me away aside from the noise of theworld a rural domestic life,Give me to warble spontaneous songs recluse by myself, for my own ears only,Give me solitude, give me Nature, give me again O Nature your primalsanities!
These demanding to have them, (tired with ceaseless excitement, andrack’d by the war-strife,)These to procure incessantly asking, rising in cries from my heart,While yet incessantly asking still I adhere to my city,Day upon day and year upon year O city, walking your streets,Where you hold me enchain’d a certain time refusing to give me up,Yet giving to make me glutted, enrich’d of soul, you give me forever faces;(O I see what I sought to escape, confronting, reversing my cries,see my own soul trampling down what it ask’d for.)
Keep your splendid silent sun,Keep your woods O Nature, and the quiet places by the woods,Keep your fields of clover and timothy, and your corn-fields and orchards,Keep the blossoming buckwheat fields where the Ninth-month bees hum;Give me faces and streets--give me these phantoms incessant andendless along the trottoirs!Give me interminable eyes--give me women--give me comrades andlovers by the thousand!Let me see new ones every day--let me hold new ones by the hand every day!Give me such shows--give me the streets of Manhattan!Give me Broadway, with the soldiers marching--give me the sound ofthe trumpets and drums!(The soldiers in companies or regiments--some starting away, flush’dand reckless,Some, their time up, returning with thinn’d ranks, young, yet veryold, worn, marching, noticing nothing;)Give me the shores and wharves heavy-fringed with black ships!O such for me! O an intense life, full to repletion and varied!The life of the theatre, bar-room, huge hotel, for me!The saloon of the steamer! the crowded excursion for me! thetorchlight procession!The dense brigade bound for the war, with high piled military wagonsfollowing;People, endless, streaming, with strong voices, passions, pageants,Manhattan streets with their powerful throbs, with beating drums as now,The endless and noisy chorus, the rustle and clank of muskets, (eventhe sight of the wounded,)Manhattan crowds, with their turbulent musical chorus!Manhattan faces and eyes forever for me.
Words in this poem 16
- arbor n.
- A kind of latticework formed of, or covered with, vines, branches of trees, or other plants, for shade; a bower. Sir P. [OE. herber, herbere, properly a garden of herbs, F. herbier, fr. L. herbarium. See Herb, and cf. Herbarium.]
- warble v. t.
- To sing in a trilling, quavering, or vibratory manner; to modulate with turns or variations; to trill; as, certain birds are remarkable for warbling their songs. [OE. werbelen, OF. werbler; of Teutonic origin; cf. G. wirbeln to turn, to warble, D. wervelen, akin to E. whirl. See Whirl.]
- primal a.
- First; primary; original; chief. [LL. primalis, fr. L. primus the first. See Prime, a.]
- ceaseless a.
- Without pause or end; incessant.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- incessantly adv.
- Unceasingly; continually.
- confronting n.
- dealing with (a person or problem) directly; taking the bull by the horns.
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
- repletion n.
- The state of being replete; superabundant fullness. [L. repletio a filling up: cf. F. réplétion. See Replete.]
- theatre n.
- An edifice in which dramatic performances or spectacles are exhibited for the amusement of spectators; anciently uncovered, except the stage, but in modern times roofed. [F. thé\'83tre, L. theatrum, Gr. dhya to meditate, think. Cf. Theory.]
- torchlight n.
- The light of a torch, or of torches. Also adjectively; as, a torchlight procession.
- brigade n.
- A body of troops, whether cavalry, artillery, infantry, or mixed, consisting of two or more regiments, under the command of a brigadier general. [F. brigade, fr. It. brigata troop, crew, brigade, originally, a contending troop, fr. briga trouble, quarrel. See Brigand.]
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- rustle v. i.
- To make a quick succession of small sounds, like the rubbing or moving of silk cloth or dry leaves. [AS. hristlan to rustle; or cf. Sw. rusta to stir, make a riot, or E. rush, v.]
- clank n.
- A sharp, brief, ringing sound, made by a collision of metallic or other sonorous bodies; -- usually expressing a duller or less resounding sound than clang, and a deeper and stronger sound than clink. [Akin to clink, and of imitative origin; cf. G. klang sound, D. klank. Cf. Clang.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun 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, Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/give-me-the-splendid-silent-sun.html, id L03956.
Form and metre
Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun is 54 lines in 3 stanzas. 76% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.0 syllables. 24 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 26% 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---- dazzling · orchard · grows · grape · teaching · content · theA · stars · can · undisturb'd · tire · theA · life · only · primal · sanities
- 2 ------AA- and · strife · heart · city · streets · up · facesA · criesA · for
- 3 -AA-B-B-----------CC--------C sun · woodsA · orchardsA · hum · andB · trottoirs · andB · thousand · day · manhattan · of · drums · flush'd · reckless · very · nothing · ships · varied · meC · theC · procession · wagons · following · pageants · now · even · wounded · chorus · meC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling, | 16 | ···/˘/˘······/˘˘ |
| Give me autumnal fruit ripe and red from the orchard, | 13 | ··˘/˘······/˘ |
| Give me a field where the unmow’d grass grows, | 10 | ·········· |
| Give me an arbor, give me the trellis’d grape, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Give me fresh corn and wheat, give me serene-moving animals teaching | 17 | ········˘//˘/˘˘/˘ |
| content, | 2 | /˘ |
| Give me nights perfectly quiet as on high plateaus west of the | 16 | ···/˘˘/˘···˘/··· |
| Mississippi, and I looking up at the stars, | 12 | ·˘/˘··/˘···· |
| Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can | 20 | ··/˘˘·/··/˘·/˘˘/˘··· |
| walk undisturb’d, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Give me for marriage a sweet-breath’d woman of whom I should never tire, | 18 | ···/˘···/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Give me a perfect child, give me away aside from the noise of the | 17 | ···˘/···˘/˘/····· |
| world a rural domestic life, | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| Give me to warble spontaneous songs recluse by myself, for my own ears only, | 21 | ···/˘˘/˘˘·˘/··/····/˘ |
| Give me solitude, give me Nature, give me again O Nature your primal | 19 | ··/˘···/˘··˘/·/˘·/˘ |
| sanities! | 3 | /˘˘ |
| These demanding to have them, (tired with ceaseless excitement, and | 16 | ·˘/˘···/˘·/˘˘/˘· |
| rack’d by the war-strife,) | 5 | ····· |
| These to procure incessantly asking, rising in cries from my heart, | 17 | ··˘/˘/˘˘/˘/˘····· |
| While yet incessantly asking still I adhere to my city, | 16 | ··˘/˘˘/˘··˘/··/˘ |
| Day upon day and year upon year O city, walking your streets, | 16 | ··········/˘/˘·· |
| Where you hold me enchain’d a certain time refusing to give me up, | 17 | ·······/˘·˘/˘···· |
| Yet giving to make me glutted, enrich’d of soul, you give me forever faces; | 20 | ·/˘···/˘˘/·····˘/˘/˘ |
| (O I see what I sought to escape, confronting, reversing my cries, | 17 | ·······˘/˘/˘˘/˘·· |
| see my own soul trampling down what it ask’d for.) | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Keep your splendid silent sun, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Keep your woods O Nature, and the quiet places by the woods, | 15 | ····/˘··/˘/˘··· |
| Keep your fields of clover and timothy, and your corn-fields and orchards, | 17 | ····/˘·/˘˘·····/˘ |
| Keep the blossoming buckwheat fields where the Ninth-month bees hum; | 14 | ··/˘˘/········ |
| Give me faces and streets--give me these phantoms incessant and | 15 | ··/˘·····/˘˘/˘· |
| endless along the trottoirs! | 7 | /˘˘/··· |
| Give me interminable eyes--give me women--give me comrades and | 17 | ··˘/˘˘˘···/˘··/·· |
| lovers by the thousand! | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Let me see new ones every day--let me hold new ones by the hand every day! | 21 | ·····/˘˘·········/˘˘· |
| Give me such shows--give me the streets of Manhattan! | 12 | ·········˘/˘ |
| Give me Broadway, with the soldiers marching--give me the sound of | 15 | ··/···/˘/˘····· |
| the trumpets and drums! | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| (The soldiers in companies or regiments--some starting away, flush’d | 17 | ·/˘·/˘˘·/˘˘·/˘˘/· |
| and reckless, | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Some, their time up, returning with thinn’d ranks, young, yet very | 14 | ····˘/˘·····/˘ |
| old, worn, marching, noticing nothing;) | 9 | ··/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Give me the shores and wharves heavy-fringed with black ships! | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| O such for me! O an intense life, full to repletion and varied! | 17 | ······˘/···˘/˘·/˘ |
| The life of the theatre, bar-room, huge hotel, for me! | 14 | ····/˘˘···˘/·· |
| The saloon of the steamer! the crowded excursion for me! the | 16 | ·˘/··/˘·/˘˘/˘··· |
| torchlight procession! | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| The dense brigade bound for the war, with high piled military wagons | 17 | ··˘/·······/˘·˘/˘ |
| following; | 3 | /˘˘ |
| People, endless, streaming, with strong voices, passions, pageants, | 14 | /˘/˘/˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Manhattan streets with their powerful throbs, with beating drums as now, | 16 | ˘/˘···/˘˘··/˘··· |
| The endless and noisy chorus, the rustle and clank of muskets, (even | 18 | ·/˘·/˘/˘·/˘···/˘/˘ |
| the sight of the wounded,) | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Manhattan crowds, with their turbulent musical chorus! | 14 | ˘/˘···/˘˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Manhattan faces and eyes forever for me. | 12 | ˘/˘/˘··˘/˘·· |
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.