Of That Blithe Throat of Thine
Of that blithe throat of thine from arctic bleak and blank,I’ll mind the lesson, solitary bird--let me too welcome chilling drifts,E’en the profoundest chill, as now--a torpid pulse, a brain unnerv’d,Old age land-lock’d within its winter bay--(cold, cold, O cold!)These snowy hairs, my feeble arm, my frozen feet,For them thy faith, thy rule I take, and grave it to the last;Not summer’s zones alone--not chants of youth, or south’s warm tides alone,But held by sluggish floes, pack’d in the northern ice, the cumulusof years,These with gay heart I also sing.
Words in this poem
- blithe a.
- Gay; merry; sprightly; joyous; glad; cheerful; as, a blithe spirit. [AS. bli blithe, kind; akin to Goth. blei kind, Icel. bli mild, gentle, Dan. & Sw. blid gentle, D. blijd blithe, OHG. blidi kind, blithe.]
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- cumulus n.
- One of the four principal forms of clouds. SeeCloud. [L., a heap. See Cumber.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Of That Blithe Throat of Thine 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 That Blithe Throat of Thine, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/of-that-blithe-throat-of-thine.html, id L04092.
Form and metre
Of That Blithe Throat of Thine is 10 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.8 syllables. 1 line ends 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.
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 that blithe throat of thine from arctic bleak and blank, | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| I’ll mind the lesson, solitary bird--let me too welcome chilling drifts, | 18 | ···/˘/˘·˘····/˘/˘· |
| E’en the profoundest chill, as now--a torpid pulse, a brain unnerv’d, | 16 | ··˘/˘····/˘···˘/ |
| Old age land-lock’d within its winter bay--(cold, cold, O cold!) | 14 | ·······/˘····· |
| These snowy hairs, my feeble arm, my frozen feet, | 12 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘· |
| For them thy faith, thy rule I take, and grave it to the last; | 14 | ·············· |
| Not summer’s zones alone--not chants of youth, or south’s warm tides alone, | 16 | ·/˘·˘/········˘/ |
| But held by sluggish floes, pack’d in the northern ice, the cumulus | 16 | ···/˘····/˘··/˘˘ |
| of years, | 2 | ·· |
| These with gay heart I also sing. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
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.