Now Precedent Songs, Farewell
Now precedent songs, farewell--by every name farewell,(Trains of a staggering line in many a strange procession, waggons,From ups and downs--with intervals--from elder years, mid-age, or youth,)“In Cabin’d Ships, or Thee Old Cause or Poets to ComeOr Paumanok, Song of Myself, Calamus, or Adam,Or Beat! Beat! Drums! or To the Leaven’d Soil they Trod,Or Captain! My Captain! Kosmos, Quicksand Years, or Thoughts,Thou Mother with thy Equal Brood,” and many, many more unspecified,From fibre heart of mine--from throat and tongue--(My life’s hotpulsing blood,The personal urge and form for me--not merely paper, automatic typeand ink,)Each song of mine--each utterance in the past--having its long, longhistory,Of life or death, or soldier’s wound, of country’s loss or safety,(O heaven! what flash and started endless train of all! comparedindeed to that!What wretched shred e’en at the best of all!)
Words in this poem
- calamus n.
- The indian cane, a plant of the Palm family. It furnishes the common rattan. See Rattan, and Dragon's blood. [L., a reed. See Halm.]
- fibre n.
- One of the delicate, threadlike portions of which the tissues of plants and animals are in part constituted; as, the fiber of flax or of muscle. [F. fibre, L. fibra.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Now Precedent Songs, Farewell 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, Now Precedent Songs, Farewell, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/now-precedent-songs-farewell.html, id L04117.
Form and metre
Now Precedent Songs, Farewell is 18 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 28% 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------------- farewell · waggons · youth · comeA · adamA · trod · thoughts · unspecified · hot · blood · type · ink · long · history · safety · compared · that · all
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Now precedent songs, farewell--by every name farewell, | 14 | ·/˘˘··/·/˘˘··/ |
| (Trains of a staggering line in many a strange procession, waggons, | 17 | ···/˘˘··/˘··˘/˘·· |
| From ups and downs--with intervals--from elder years, mid-age, or youth,) | 16 | ·····/˘˘·/˘····· |
| “In Cabin’d Ships, or Thee Old Cause or Poets to Come | 13 | ·········/˘·· |
| Or Paumanok, Song of Myself, Calamus, or Adam, | 14 | ·······//˘˘·/˘ |
| Or Beat! Beat! Drums! or To the Leaven’d Soil they Trod, | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| Or Captain! My Captain! Kosmos, Quicksand Years, or Thoughts, | 13 | ·/˘·/˘/˘/···· |
| Thou Mother with thy Equal Brood,” and many, many more unspecified, | 18 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| From fibre heart of mine--from throat and tongue--(My life’s hot | 13 | ·/˘·········· |
| pulsing blood, | 3 | /˘· |
| The personal urge and form for me--not merely paper, automatic type | 19 | ·/˘˘······/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| and ink,) | 2 | ·· |
| Each song of mine--each utterance in the past--having its long, long | 16 | ·····/˘˘···/˘··· |
| history, | 3 | /˘˘ |
| Of life or death, or soldier’s wound, of country’s loss or safety, | 15 | ·····/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| (O heaven! what flash and started endless train of all! compared | 15 | ·/˘···/˘/˘···˘/ |
| indeed to that! | 4 | ˘/·· |
| What wretched shred e’en at the best of all!) | 10 | ·/˘······· |
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.