Others May Praise What They Like
Others may praise what they like;But I, from the banks of the running Missouri, praise nothing in artor aught else,Till it has well inhaled the atmosphere of this river, also thewestern prairie-scent,And exudes it all again.
Words in this poem
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Others May Praise What They Like 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, Others May Praise What They Like, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/others-may-praise-what-they-like.html, id L04006.
Form and metre
Others May Praise What They Like is 6 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The lines average 9.3 syllables.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Others may praise what they like; | 7 | /˘····· |
| But I, from the banks of the running Missouri, praise nothing in art | 17 | ·······/˘˘/˘·/˘·· |
| or aught else, | 3 | ··· |
| Till it has well inhaled the atmosphere of this river, also the | 17 | ····˘/·/˘···/˘/˘· |
| western prairie-scent, | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| And exudes it all again. | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
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.