Not Heaving from My Ribb’d Breast Only
Not heaving from my ribb’d breast only,Not in sighs at night in rage dissatisfied with myself,Not in those long-drawn, ill-supprest sighs,Not in many an oath and promise broken,Not in my wilful and savage soul’s volition,Not in the subtle nourishment of the air,Not in this beating and pounding at my temples and wrists,Not in the curious systole and diastole within which will one day cease,Not in many a hungry wish told to the skies only,Not in cries, laughter, defiancies, thrown from me when alone far inthe wilds,Not in husky pantings through clinch’d teeth,Not in sounded and resounded words, chattering words, echoes, dead words,Not in the murmurs of my dreams while I sleep,Nor the other murmurs of these incredible dreams of every day,Nor in the limbs and senses of my body that take you and dismiss youcontinually--not there,Not in any or all of them O adhesiveness! O pulse of my life!Need I that you exist and show yourself any more than in these songs.
Words in this poem
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- diastole n.
- The rhythmical expansion or dilatation of the heart and arteries; -- correlative to systole, or contraction.
- husky a.
- Abounding with husks; consisting of husks. [From Husk, n.]
- chattering n.
- The act or habit of talking idly or rapidly, or of making inarticulate sounds; the sounds so made; noise made by the collision of the teeth; chatter.
- incredible a.
- Not credible; surpassing belief; too extraordinary and improbable to admit of belief; unlikely; marvelous; fabulous. [L. incredibilis: cf. OF. incredible. See In- not, and Credible.]
- adhesiveness n.
- The quality of sticking or adhering; stickiness; tenacity of union.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Not Heaving from My Ribb’d Breast Only 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, Not Heaving from My Ribb’d Breast Only, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/not-heaving-from-my-ribb-d-breast-only.html, id L03866.
Form and metre
Not Heaving from My Ribb’d Breast Only is 19 lines in a single stanza. 77% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.1 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% 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----B--A-------B-- onlyA · myself · sighs · broken · volition · airB · wrists · cease · onlyA · in · wilds · teeth · words · sleep · day · you · thereB · life · songs
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not heaving from my ribb’d breast only, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Not in sighs at night in rage dissatisfied with myself, | 14 | ·······˘/˘···/ |
| Not in those long-drawn, ill-supprest sighs, | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| Not in many an oath and promise broken, | 11 | ··/˘···/˘/˘ |
| Not in my wilful and savage soul’s volition, | 12 | ······/˘·˘/˘ |
| Not in the subtle nourishment of the air, | 11 | ···/˘/˘˘··· |
| Not in this beating and pounding at my temples and wrists, | 14 | ···/˘·/˘··/˘·· |
| Not in the curious systole and diastole within which will one day cease, | 21 | ···/˘˘/˘˘·˘/˘········ |
| Not in many a hungry wish told to the skies only, | 14 | ··/˘·/˘·····/˘ |
| Not in cries, laughter, defiancies, thrown from me when alone far in | 15 | ···/˘······˘/·· |
| the wilds, | 2 | ·· |
| Not in husky pantings through clinch’d teeth, | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Not in sounded and resounded words, chattering words, echoes, dead words, | 17 | ··/˘··/˘·/˘˘·/˘·· |
| Not in the murmurs of my dreams while I sleep, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Nor the other murmurs of these incredible dreams of every day, | 18 | ··/˘/˘··˘/˘˘··/˘˘· |
| Nor in the limbs and senses of my body that take you and dismiss you | 18 | ·····/˘··/˘····˘/· |
| continually--not there, | 7 | ˘/˘˘˘·· |
| Not in any or all of them O adhesiveness! O pulse of my life! | 18 | ··/˘·····˘/˘˘····· |
| Need I that you exist and show yourself any more than in these songs. | 17 | ····˘/··˘//˘····· |
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.