O Hymen! o Hymenee!
O hymen! O hymenee! why do you tantalize me thus?O why sting me for a swift moment only?Why can you not continue? O why do you now cease?Is it because if you continued beyond the swift moment you wouldsoon certainly kill me?
Words in this poem
- hymen n.
- A fold of muscous membrane often found at the orifice of the vagina; the vaginal membrane.
- tantalize v. t.
- To tease or torment by presenting some good to the view and exciting desire, but continually frustrating the expectations by keeping that good out of reach; to tease; to torment. [From Tantalus: cf. F. tantaliser.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
O Hymen! o Hymenee! 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, O Hymen! o Hymenee!, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/o-hymen-o-hymenee.html, id L03856.
Form and metre
O Hymen! o Hymenee! is 5 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 12.4 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 |
|---|---|---|
| O hymen! O hymenee! why do you tantalize me thus? | 15 | ·/˘·······/˘··· |
| O why sting me for a swift moment only? | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Why can you not continue? O why do you now cease? | 13 | ····˘/˘······ |
| Is it because if you continued beyond the swift moment you would | 17 | ······˘/˘····/˘·· |
| soon certainly kill me? | 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.