Kosmos
Who includes diversity and is Nature,Who is the amplitude of the earth, and the coarseness and sexuality ofthe earth, and the great charity of the earth, and the equilibrium also,Who has not look’d forth from the windows the eyes for nothing,or whose brain held audience with messengers for nothing,Who contains believers and disbelievers, who is the most majestic lover,Who holds duly his or her triune proportion of realism,spiritualism, and of the aesthetic or intellectual,Who having consider’d the body finds all its organs and parts good,Who, out of the theory of the earth and of his or her bodyunderstands by subtle analogies all other theories,The theory of a city, a poem, and of the large politics of these States;Who believes not only in our globe with its sun and moon, but inother globes with their suns and moons,Who, constructing the house of himself or herself, not for a daybut for all time, sees races, eras, dates, generations,The past, the future, dwelling there, like space, inseparable together.
Words in this poem
- amplitude n.
- State of being ample; extent of surface or space; largeness of dimensions; size. [L. amplitudo, fr. amplus: cf. F. amplitude. See Ample.]
- sexuality n.
- The quality or state of being distinguished by sex. Lindley.
- triune a.
- Being three in one; -- an epithet used to express the unity of a trinity of persons in the Godhead. [Pref. tri- + L. unus one. See One.]
- spiritualism n.
- The quality or state of being spiritual.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Kosmos 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, Kosmos, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/kosmos.html, id L04005.
Form and metre
Kosmos is 17 lines in a single stanza. 67% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 16.1 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 24% 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 ---AA--------B-B- nature · of · also · nothingA · nothingA · lover · realism · intellectual · good · body · theories · states · in · moonsB · day · generationsB · together
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who includes diversity and is Nature, | 11 | ·˘/˘/˘˘··/˘ |
| Who is the amplitude of the earth, and the coarseness and sexuality of | 20 | ···/˘······/˘··˘/˘˘· |
| the earth, and the great charity of the earth, and the equilibrium also, | 20 | ·····/˘˘······˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Who has not look’d forth from the windows the eyes for nothing, | 14 | ·······/˘···/˘ |
| or whose brain held audience with messengers for nothing, | 14 | ····/˘˘·/˘˘·/˘ |
| Who contains believers and disbelievers, who is the most majestic lover, | 20 | ·˘/˘/˘·········˘/˘/˘ |
| Who holds duly his or her triune proportion of realism, | 16 | ··/˘···/˘˘/˘·/˘˘ |
| spiritualism, and of the aesthetic or intellectual, | 17 | /˘˘˘˘···˘/˘··˘/˘˘ |
| Who having consider’d the body finds all its organs and parts good, | 17 | ·/˘˘/˘·/˘···/˘··· |
| Who, out of the theory of the earth and of his or her body | 16 | ····/˘········/˘ |
| understands by subtle analogies all other theories, | 15 | ·˘/·/˘˘/˘˘·/˘/˘ |
| The theory of a city, a poem, and of the large politics of these States; | 20 | ·/˘··/˘·/˘····/˘···· |
| Who believes not only in our globe with its sun and moon, but in | 17 | ·˘/·/˘·/˘········ |
| other globes with their suns and moons, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Who, constructing the house of himself or herself, not for a day | 16 | ·˘/˘···˘/·˘/···· |
| but for all time, sees races, eras, dates, generations, | 14 | ·····/˘/˘··˘/˘ |
| The past, the future, dwelling there, like space, inseparable together. | 18 | ···/˘/˘···˘/˘˘˘˘/˘ |
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.