No Labor-Saving Machine
No labor-saving machine,Nor discovery have I made,Nor will I be able to leave behind me any wealthy bequest to foundhospital or library,Nor reminiscence of any deed of courage for America,Nor literary success nor intellect; nor book for the book-shelf,But a few carols vibrating through the air I leave,For comrades and lovers.
Words in this poem
- hospital n.
- A place for shelter or entertainment; an inn. [OF. hospital, ospital, F. hôpital, LL. hospitale (or perh. E. hospital is directly from the Late Latin), from L. hospitalis relating to a guest, hospitalia apar]
- reminiscence n.
- The act or power of recalling past experience; the state of being reminiscent; remembrance; memory. [F. réminiscence, L. reminiscentia.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
No Labor-Saving Machine 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, No Labor-Saving Machine, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/no-labor-saving-machine.html, id L03883.
Form and metre
No Labor-Saving Machine is 8 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 64% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.8 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| No labor-saving machine, | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘/ |
| Nor discovery have I made, | 8 | ·˘/˘˘··· |
| Nor will I be able to leave behind me any wealthy bequest to found | 19 | ····/˘·····/˘/˘˘/·· |
| hospital or library, | 7 | /·˘·/·˘ |
| Nor reminiscence of any deed of courage for America, | 17 | ··˘/˘·/˘··/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Nor literary success nor intellect; nor book for the book-shelf, | 17 | ·/˘·˘˘/·/˘······· |
| But a few carols vibrating through the air I leave, | 13 | ···/˘/˘˘····· |
| For comrades and lovers. | 6 | ·/··/˘ |
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.