I Was Looking a Long While
I was looking a long while for Intentions,For a clew to the history of the past for myself, and for thesechants--and now I have found it,It is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them I neitheraccept nor reject,)It is no more in the legends than in all else,It is in the present--it is this earth to-day,It is in Democracy--(the purport and aim of all the past,)It is the life of one man or one woman to-day--the average man of to-day,It is in languages, social customs, literatures, arts,It is in the broad show of artificial things, ships, machinery,politics, creeds, modern improvements, and the interchange of nations,All for the modern--all for the average man of to-day.
Words in this poem
- clew v. t.
- To direct; to guide, as by a thread. [Cf. D. kluwenen. See Clew, n.]
- purport n.
- Design or tendency; meaning; import; tenor. [OF. purport; pur, pour, for (L. pro) + porter to bear, carry. See Port demeanor.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I Was Looking a Long While 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, I Was Looking a Long While, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/i-was-looking-a-long-while.html, id L03999.
Form and metre
I Was Looking a Long While is 13 lines in a single stanza. 72% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 14.0 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% 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 intentions · these · it · neither · reject · else · dayA · past · dayA · arts · machinery · nations · dayA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I was looking a long while for Intentions, | 11 | ··/˘····˘/˘ |
| For a clew to the history of the past for myself, and for these | 17 | ·····/˘˘·····/··· |
| chants--and now I have found it, | 7 | ······· |
| It is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them I neither | 17 | ······/˘··/·˘··/˘ |
| accept nor reject,) | 5 | ˘/·˘/ |
| It is no more in the legends than in all else, | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| It is in the present--it is this earth to-day, | 12 | ····/˘······ |
| It is in Democracy--(the purport and aim of all the past,) | 16 | ···˘/˘˘·/······· |
| It is the life of one man or one woman to-day--the average man of to-day, | 21 | ·········/˘···/˘˘···· |
| It is in languages, social customs, literatures, arts, | 15 | ···/˘˘/˘/˘/˘˘˘· |
| It is in the broad show of artificial things, ships, machinery, | 17 | ········˘/˘··˘/˘˘ |
| politics, creeds, modern improvements, and the interchange of nations, | 17 | /˘··/˘˘/˘···˘/·/˘ |
| All for the modern--all for the average man of to-day. | 15 | ···/˘···/˘˘···· |
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.