Halcyon Days
Not from successful love alone,Nor wealth, nor honor’d middle age, nor victories of politics or war;But as life wanes, and all the turbulent passions calm,As gorgeous, vapory, silent hues cover the evening sky,As softness, fulness, rest, suffuse the frame, like freshier, balmier air,As the days take on a mellower light, and the apple at last hangsreally finish’d and indolent-ripe on the tree,Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all!The brooding and blissful halcyon days!
Words in this poem
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- gorgeous a.
- Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent. [OF. gorgias beautiful, glorious, vain, luxurious; cf. OF. gorgias ruff, neck handkerchief, and F. gorge throat, and se pengorger to assume airs. Cf. Gorge, n.]
- vapory a.
- Full of vapors; vaporous.
- suffuse v. t.
- To overspread, as with a fluid or tincture; to fill or cover, as with something fluid; as, eyes suffused with tears; cheeks suffused with blushes. [L. suffusus, p.p. of suffundere to overspread; sub under + fundere to pour. See Fuse to melt.]
- indolent a.
- Free from toil, pain, or trouble. [Pref. in- not + L. dolens, -entis, p. pr. of dolere to feel pain: cf. F. indolent. See Dolorous.]
- teeming a.
- Prolific; productive.
- blissful a.
- Full of, characterized by, or causing, joy and felicity; happy in the highest degree.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Halcyon Days 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, Halcyon Days, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/halcyon-days.html, id L04087.
Form and metre
Halcyon Days is 9 lines in a single stanza. 77% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.7 syllables. 11% 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-- alone · war · calm · skyA · air · hangs · treeA · all · days
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not from successful love alone, | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Nor wealth, nor honor’d middle age, nor victories of politics or war; | 18 | ···/˘/˘··/˘˘·/˘··· |
| But as life wanes, and all the turbulent passions calm, | 13 | ·······/˘˘/˘· |
| As gorgeous, vapory, silent hues cover the evening sky, | 15 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| As softness, fulness, rest, suffuse the frame, like freshier, balmier air, | 16 | ·/˘/˘·˘/········ |
| As the days take on a mellower light, and the apple at last hangs | 17 | ············/˘··· |
| really finish’d and indolent-ripe on the tree, | 12 | /˘/˘·/˘˘···· |
| Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all! | 14 | ···/˘/˘˘/˘˘··· |
| The brooding and blissful halcyon days! | 10 | ·/˘·/˘/˘˘· |
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.