Of Him I Love Day and Night
Of him I love day and night I dream’d I heard he was dead,And I dream’d I went where they had buried him I love, but he wasnot in that place,And I dream’d I wander’d searching among burial-places to find him,And I found that every place was a burial-place;The houses full of life were equally full of death, (this house is now,)The streets, the shipping, the places of amusement, the Chicago,Boston, Philadelphia, the Mannahatta, were as full of the dead asof the living,And fuller, O vastly fuller of the dead than of the living;And what I dream’d I will henceforth tell to every person and age,And I stand henceforth bound to what I dream’d,And now I am willing to disregard burial-places and dispense with them,And if the memorials of the dead were put up indifferently everywhere,even in the room where I eat or sleep, I should be satisfied,And if the corpse of any one I love, or if my own corpse, be dulyrender’d to powder and pour’d in the sea, I shall be satisfied,Or if it be distributed to the winds I shall be satisfied.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- burial n.
- A grave; a tomb; a place of sepulture. [OE. buriel, buriels, grave, tomb, AS. byrgels, fr. byrgan to bury, and akin to OS. burgisli sepulcher.]
- amusement n.
- Deep thought; muse. [Cf. F. amusement.]
- vastly adv.
- To a vast extent or degree; very greatly; immensely. Jer.
- henceforth adv.
- From this time forward; henceforward.
- dispense v. i.
- To compensate; to make up; to make amends.
- indifferently adv.
- In an indifferent manner; without distinction or preference; impartially; without concern, wish, affection, or aversion; tolerably; passably.
- corpse n.
- A human body in general, whether living or dead; -- sometimes contemptuosly. [OF. cors (sometimes written corps), F. corps, L. corpus; akin to AS. hrif womb. See Midriff, and cf. Corse, Corselet, Corps, Cuerpo.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Of Him I Love Day and Night 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, Of Him I Love Day and Night, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/of-him-i-love-day-and-night.html, id L04025.
Form and metre
Of Him I Love Day and Night is 18 lines in a single stanza. 73% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 15.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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-A---BB----C-CC dead · was · placeA · him · placeA · now · chicago · as · livingB · livingB · age · dream'd · them · everywhere · satisfiedC · duly · satisfiedC · satisfiedC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Of him I love day and night I dream’d I heard he was dead, | 14 | ·············· |
| And I dream’d I went where they had buried him I love, but he was | 16 | ········/˘······ |
| not in that place, | 4 | ···· |
| And I dream’d I wander’d searching among burial-places to find him, | 18 | ····/˘/˘··/˘˘/˘··· |
| And I found that every place was a burial-place; | 14 | ····/˘˘···/˘˘· |
| The houses full of life were equally full of death, (this house is now,) | 17 | ·/˘····/˘˘······· |
| The streets, the shipping, the places of amusement, the Chicago, | 16 | ···/˘·/˘·˘/˘·˘/· |
| Boston, Philadelphia, the Mannahatta, were as full of the dead as | 19 | /˘·˘/˘˘············ |
| of the living, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| And fuller, O vastly fuller of the dead than of the living; | 16 | ·/˘·/˘/˘······/˘ |
| And what I dream’d I will henceforth tell to every person and age, | 17 | ······//··/˘˘/˘·· |
| And I stand henceforth bound to what I dream’d, | 10 | ···//····· |
| And now I am willing to disregard burial-places and dispense with them, | 20 | ····/˘··˘//˘˘/˘·˘/·· |
| And if the memorials of the dead were put up indifferently everywhere, | 21 | ···˘/˘˘······˘/˘˘˘/˘· |
| even in the room where I eat or sleep, I should be satisfied, | 16 | /˘···········/˘· |
| And if the corpse of any one I love, or if my own corpse, be duly | 18 | ·····/˘·········/˘ |
| render’d to powder and pour’d in the sea, I shall be satisfied, | 16 | /˘·/˘········/˘· |
| Or if it be distributed to the winds I shall be satisfied. | 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.