Old Age’s Lambent Peaks
The touch of flame--the illuminating fire--the loftiest look at last,O’er city, passion, sea--o’er prairie, mountain, wood--the earth itself,The airy, different, changing hues of all, in failing twilight,Objects and groups, bearings, faces, reminiscences;The calmer sight--the golden setting, clear and broad:So much i’ the atmosphere, the points of view, the situations whencewe scan,Bro’t out by them alone--so much (perhaps the best) unreck’d before;The lights indeed from them--old age’s lambent peaks.
Words in this poem
- calmer n.
- One who, or that which, makes calm.
- scan v. t.
- To mount by steps; to go through with step by step. [L. scandere, scansum, to climb, to scan, akin to Skr. skand to spring, leap: cf. F. scander. Cf. Ascend, Descend, Scale a ladder.]
- lambent a.
- Playing on the surface; touching lightly; gliding over. [L. lambens, -enlis, p. pr. of lambere to lick; akin to lap. See Lap to drink by licking.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Old Age’s Lambent Peaks 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, Old Age’s Lambent Peaks, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/old-age-s-lambent-peaks.html, id L04119.
Form and metre
Old Age’s Lambent Peaks is 9 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 11% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| The touch of flame--the illuminating fire--the loftiest look at last, | 18 | ·····˘/˘·˘/˘······ |
| O’er city, passion, sea--o’er prairie, mountain, wood--the earth itself, | 16 | ·/˘/˘··/˘/˘···˘/ |
| The airy, different, changing hues of all, in failing twilight, | 16 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘····/˘/· |
| Objects and groups, bearings, faces, reminiscences; | 13 | /˘··/˘/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| The calmer sight--the golden setting, clear and broad: | 12 | ·/˘··/˘/˘··· |
| So much i’ the atmosphere, the points of view, the situations whence | 17 | ····/˘·······˘/˘· |
| we scan, | 2 | ·· |
| Bro’t out by them alone--so much (perhaps the best) unreck’d before; | 16 | ····˘/··˘/······ |
| The lights indeed from them--old age’s lambent peaks. | 12 | ··˘/···/˘/˘· |
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.