Old Chants
An ancient song, reciting, ending,Once gazing toward thee, Mother of All,Musing, seeking themes fitted for thee,Accept me, thou saidst, the elder ballads,And name for me before thou goest each ancient poet.
(Of many debts incalculable,Haply our New World’s chieftest debt is to old poems.)
Ever so far back, preluding thee, America,Old chants, Egyptian priests, and those of Ethiopia,The Hindu epics, the Grecian, Chinese, Persian,The Biblic books and prophets, and deep idyls of the Nazarene,The Iliad, Odyssey, plots, doings, wanderings of Eneas,Hesiod, Eschylus, Sophocles, Merlin, Arthur,The Cid, Roland at Roncesvalles, the Nibelungen,The troubadours, minstrels, minnesingers, skalds,Chaucer, Dante, flocks of singing birds,The Border Minstrelsy, the bye-gone ballads, feudal tales, essays, plays,Shakespere, Schiller, Walter Scott, Tennyson,As some vast wondrous weird dream-presences,The great shadowy groups gathering around,Darting their mighty masterful eyes forward at thee,Thou! with as now thy bending neck and head, with courteous handand word, ascending,Thou! pausing a moment, drooping thine eyes upon them, blentwith their music,Well pleased, accepting all, curiously prepared for by them,Thou enterest at thy entrance porch.
Words in this poem
- incalculable a.
- Not capable of being calculated; beyond calculation; very great. [Pref. in- not + calculable: cf. F. incalculable.]
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- hindu n.
- A native inhabitant of Hindostan. As an ethnical term it is confined to the Dravidian and Aryan races; as a religious name it is restricted to followers of the Veda. [Per. Hindu, fr. Hind, Hindustan, India. Cf. Indian.]
- nazarene n.
- A native or inhabitant of Nazareth; -- a term of contempt applied to Christ and the early Christians.
- odyssey n.
- An epic poem attributed to Homer, which describes the return of Ulysses to Ithaca after the siege of Troy. [L. Odyssea, Gr. Odyssée.]
- merlin n.
- A small European falcon (Falco lithofalco, or F. æsalon). [OE. merlion, F. émerillon ; cf. OHG. smirl, G. schmerl ; prob. fr. L. merula blackbird. Cf. Merle.]
- minstrelsy n.
- The arts and occupation of minstrels; the singing and playing of a minstrel.
- walter v. i.
- To roll or wallow; to welter. [Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot.] [See Welter.]
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- masterful a.
- Inclined to play the master; domineering; imperious; arbitrary.
- blent p. p.
- Blinded. Also (Chaucer), 3d sing. pres. Blindeth.
- curiously adv.
- In a curious manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Old Chants 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 Chants, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/old-chants.html, id L04133.
Form and metre
Old Chants is 27 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 78% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.7 syllables. 14 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% 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.
- 3 ---A--A--B-B-------- america · ethiopia · persian · nazareneA · eneas · arthur · nibelungenA · skalds · birds · playsB · tennyson · presencesB · around · thee · hand · ascending · blent · music · them · porch
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An ancient song, reciting, ending, | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Once gazing toward thee, Mother of All, | 10 | ·/˘···/˘·· |
| Musing, seeking themes fitted for thee, | 9 | /˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Accept me, thou saidst, the elder ballads, | 10 | ˘/····/˘/˘ |
| And name for me before thou goest each ancient poet. | 13 | ·········/˘/˘ |
| (Of many debts incalculable, | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘˘ |
| Haply our New World’s chieftest debt is to old poems.) | 14 | /˘/˘········/˘ |
| Ever so far back, preluding thee, America, | 13 | /˘···/·˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Old chants, Egyptian priests, and those of Ethiopia, | 14 | ··˘/˘·····˘/˘˘ |
| The Hindu epics, the Grecian, Chinese, Persian, | 12 | ·/·/˘·/˘˘//˘ |
| The Biblic books and prophets, and deep idyls of the Nazarene, | 16 | ·····/˘········· |
| The Iliad, Odyssey, plots, doings, wanderings of Eneas, | 17 | ·/˘˘/˘˘·/˘/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| Hesiod, Eschylus, Sophocles, Merlin, Arthur, | 13 | /˘˘···/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| The Cid, Roland at Roncesvalles, the Nibelungen, | 13 | ··/˘········· |
| The troubadours, minstrels, minnesingers, skalds, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| Chaucer, Dante, flocks of singing birds, | 9 | /˘/˘··/˘· |
| The Border Minstrelsy, the bye-gone ballads, feudal tales, essays, plays, | 17 | ·/˘/˘˘···/˘/˘·˘/· |
| Shakespere, Schiller, Walter Scott, Tennyson, | 11 | ···/˘/˘·/˘˘ |
| As some vast wondrous weird dream-presences, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| The great shadowy groups gathering around, | 11 | ··/˘˘·/˘˘·· |
| Darting their mighty masterful eyes forward at thee, | 13 | /˘·/˘/˘˘·/˘·· |
| Thou! with as now thy bending neck and head, with courteous hand | 15 | ·····/˘····/˘˘· |
| and word, ascending, | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Thou! pausing a moment, drooping thine eyes upon them, blent | 14 | ·/˘·/˘/˘······ |
| with their music, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Well pleased, accepting all, curiously prepared for by them, | 15 | ··˘/˘·/˘˘˘˘/··· |
| Thou enterest at thy entrance porch. | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
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.