Orange Buds by Mail from Florida
A lesser proof than old Voltaire’s, yet greater,Proof of this present time, and thee, thy broad expanse, America,To my plain Northern hut, in outside clouds and snow,Brought safely for a thousand miles o’er land and tide,Some three days since on their own soil live-sprouting,Now here their sweetness through my room unfolding,A bunch of orange buds by mall from Florida.
Words in this poem
- mall n.
- A large heavy wooden beetle; a mallet for driving anything with force; a maul. [OE. malle, F. mail, L. malleus. Cf. Malleus.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Orange Buds by Mail from Florida 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, Orange Buds by Mail from Florida, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/orange-buds-by-mail-from-florida.html, id L04110.
Form and metre
Orange Buds by Mail from Florida is 7 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.1 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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. Read against iambic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A lesser proof than old Voltaire’s, yet greater, | 11 | ·/˘···˘/·/˘ |
| Proof of this present time, and thee, thy broad expanse, America, | 16 | ···/˘·····˘/˘/˘˘ |
| To my plain Northern hut, in outside clouds and snow, | 12 | ···/˘··//··· |
| Brought safely for a thousand miles o’er land and tide, | 12 | ·/˘··/˘····· |
| Some three days since on their own soil live-sprouting, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Now here their sweetness through my room unfolding, | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| A bunch of orange buds by mall from Florida. | 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.