Lingering Last Drops
We know not whence, (was the answer,)We only know that we drift here with the rest,That we linger’d and lagg’d--but were wafted at last, and are now here,To make the passing shower’s concluding drops.
About this text
Lingering Last Drops 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, Lingering Last Drops, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/lingering-last-drops.html, id L04121.
Form and metre
Lingering Last Drops is 4 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 11.5 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We know not whence, (was the answer,) | 8 | ······/˘ |
| We only know that we drift here with the rest, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| That we linger’d and lagg’d--but were wafted at last, and are now here, | 16 | ··/˘····/˘······ |
| To make the passing shower’s concluding drops. | 11 | ···/˘/˘˘/˘· |
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.