Leaves of Grass
Come, said my soul,Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)That should I after return,Or, long, long hence, in other spheres,There to some group of mates the chants resuming,(Tallying Earth’s soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)Ever with pleas’d smile I may keep on,Ever and ever yet the verses owning--as, first, I here and nowSigning for Soul and Body, set to them my name,
About this text
Leaves of Grass 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, Leaves of Grass, (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/leaves-of-grass.html, id L26122.
Form and metre
Leaves of Grass is 9 lines in a single stanza.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Come, said my soul, | 4 | ···· |
| Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,) | 14 | ·/˘··/˘······· |
| That should I after return, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Or, long, long hence, in other spheres, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| There to some group of mates the chants resuming, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| (Tallying Earth’s soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,) | 12 | /˘˘·····/˘˘· |
| Ever with pleas’d smile I may keep on, | 9 | /˘······· |
| Ever and ever yet the verses owning--as, first, I here and now | 17 | /˘·/˘··/˘/˘······ |
| Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my name, | 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.