Pioneers! o Pioneers!
Come my tan-faced children,Follow well in order, get your weapons ready,Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes?Pioneers! O pioneers!
For we cannot tarry here,We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,Pioneers! O pioneers!
O you youths, Western youths,So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,Pioneers! O pioneers!
Have the elder races halted?Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the seas?We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson,Pioneers! O pioneers!
All the past we leave behind,We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world,Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march,Pioneers! O pioneers!
We detachments steady throwing,Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the unknown ways,Pioneers! O pioneers!
We primeval forests felling,We the rivers stemming, vexing we and piercing deep the mines within,We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving,Pioneers! O pioneers!
Colorado men are we,From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus,From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come,Pioneers! O pioneers!
From Nebraska, from Arkansas,Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continentalblood intervein’d,All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern,Pioneers! O pioneers!
O resistless restless race!O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all!O I mourn and yet exult, I am rapt with love for all,Pioneers! O pioneers!
Raise the mighty mother mistress,Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress,(bend your heads all,)Raise the fang’d and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon’d mistress,Pioneers! O pioneers!
See my children, resolute children,By those swarms upon our rear we must never yield or falter,Ages back in ghostly millions frowning there behind us urging,Pioneers! O pioneers!
On and on the compact ranks,With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill’d,Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping,Pioneers! O pioneers!
O to die advancing on!Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come?Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill’d.Pioneers! O pioneers!
All the pulses of the world,Falling in they beat for us, with the Western movement beat,Holding single or together, steady moving to the front, all for us,Pioneers! O pioneers!
Life’s involv’d and varied pageants,All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work,All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves,Pioneers! O pioneers!
All the hapless silent lovers,All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked,All the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the dying,Pioneers! O pioneers!
I too with my soul and body,We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way,Through these shores amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing,Pioneers! O pioneers!
Lo, the darting bowling orb!Lo, the brother orbs around, all the clustering suns and planets,All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams,Pioneers! O pioneers!
These are of us, they are with us,All for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait behind,We to-day’s procession heading, we the route for travel clearing,Pioneers! O pioneers!
O you daughters of the West!O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives!Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united,Pioneers! O pioneers!
Minstrels latent on the prairies!(Shrouded bards of other lands, you may rest, you have done your work,)Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us,Pioneers! O pioneers!
Not for delectations sweet,Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious,Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment,Pioneers! O pioneers!
Do the feasters gluttonous feast?Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock’d and bolted doors?Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground,Pioneers! O pioneers!
Has the night descended?Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged noddingon our way?Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivious,Pioneers! O pioneers!
Till with sound of trumpet,Far, far off the daybreak call--hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind,Swift! to the head of the army!--swift! spring to your places,Pioneers! O pioneers!
Words in this poem 19
- brunt n.
- The heat, or utmost violence, of an onset; the strength or greatest fury of any contention; as, the brunt of a battle. [OE. brunt, bront, fr. Icel. bruna to rush; cf. Icel. brenna to burn. Cf. Burn, v. t.]
- debouch v. i.
- To march out from a wood, defile, or other confined spot, into open ground; to issue. [F. déboucher; pref. dé- (L. dis- or de) + boucher to stop up, fr. bouche mouth, fr. L. bucca the cheek. Cf. Disembogue.]
- gully v. i.
- To flow noisily. Johnson.
- resistless a.
- Having no power to resist; making no opposition.
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- impassive a.
- Not susceptible of pain or suffering; apathetic; impassible; unmoved.
- falter v. t.
- To thrash in the chaff; also, to cleanse or sift, as barley.
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- defeat v. t.
- To undo; to disfigure; to destroy. [From F. défait, OF. desfait, p. p. ofe défaire, OF. desfaire, to undo; L. dis- + facere to do. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Disfashion.]
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- trio n.
- Three, considered collectively; three in company or acting together; a set of three; three united. [It., fr. L. tres, tria, three: cf. F. trio, from the Italian. See Three.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- primal a.
- First; primary; original; chief. [LL. primalis, fr. L. primus the first. See Prime, a.]
- heading n.
- The act or state of one who, or that which, heads; formation of a head.
- route n.
- The course or way which is traveled or passed, or is to be passed; a passing; a course; a road or path; a march. [OE. & F. route, OF. rote, fr. L. rupta (sc. via), fr. ruptus, p.p. of rumpere to break; hence, literally, a broken or beaten way or path. See Rout, and cf. Rut ]
- oblivious a.
- Promoting oblivion; causing forgetfulness. [L.obliviosus: cf.F. oblivieux.]
- daybreak n.
- The time of the first appearance of light in the morning.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Pioneers! o Pioneers! 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, Pioneers! o Pioneers!, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/pioneers-o-pioneers.html, id L03906.
Form and metre
Pioneers! o Pioneers! is 107 lines in 26 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.2 syllables. 35 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
- 7 A-A- fellingA · within · upheavingA · pioneers
- 10 -AA- race · allA · allA · pioneers
- 11 AA-A- mistressA · mistressA · all · mistressA · pioneers
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Come my tan-faced children, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Follow well in order, get your weapons ready, | 12 | /˘··/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes? | 12 | ···/˘·····/˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| For we cannot tarry here, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, | 14 | ····/˘······/˘ |
| We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, | 16 | ··/˘/˘˘/˘·····˘/ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| O you youths, Western youths, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, | 16 | ·˘/˘··/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost, | 15 | ····/˘···/˘··/· |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Have the elder races halted? | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the seas? | 17 | ······/˘/˘······· |
| We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson, | 16 | ·····˘/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| All the past we leave behind, | 7 | ······· |
| We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world, | 15 | ·˘/···/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| We detachments steady throwing, | 8 | ·˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep, | 13 | ··/˘··/˘··/˘· |
| Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the unknown ways, | 17 | /˘˘/˘/˘/˘˘····˘/· |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| We primeval forests felling, | 8 | ·˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| We the rivers stemming, vexing we and piercing deep the mines within, | 17 | ··/˘/˘/˘··/˘····· |
| We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving, | 16 | ··/˘·˘/˘··/˘···· |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Colorado men are we, | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus, | 17 | ···˘/˘···˘/˘···˘/ |
| From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come, | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| From Nebraska, from Arkansas, | 8 | ·˘/˘·/˘· |
| Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental | 17 | /˘/·····˘/˘···˘/˘ |
| blood intervein’d, | 4 | ···· |
| All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern, | 16 | ····/·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| O resistless restless race! | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all! | 16 | ·˘/········/˘··· |
| O I mourn and yet exult, I am rapt with love for all, | 14 | ·····˘/······· |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Raise the mighty mother mistress, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress, | 17 | /˘··/˘˘/˘····/˘/˘ |
| (bend your heads all,) | 4 | ···· |
| Raise the fang’d and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon’d mistress, | 16 | ····/·/˘·˘/˘··/˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| See my children, resolute children, | 9 | ··/˘/˘·/˘ |
| By those swarms upon our rear we must never yield or falter, | 16 | ·····/˘···/˘··/˘ |
| Ages back in ghostly millions frowning there behind us urging, | 16 | /˘··/˘/˘/˘····/˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| On and on the compact ranks, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill’d, | 18 | ·˘/˘/˘/˘··/˘···/˘· |
| Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping, | 15 | ··/˘·˘//˘··/˘/˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| O to die advancing on! | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come? | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill’d. | 16 | ······/˘········ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| All the pulses of the world, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Falling in they beat for us, with the Western movement beat, | 14 | /˘·······/˘/˘· |
| Holding single or together, steady moving to the front, all for us, | 18 | /˘/˘·˘/˘/˘/˘······ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Life’s involv’d and varied pageants, | 8 | ·˘/·/˘/˘ |
| All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work, | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves, | 15 | ··/˘······/˘··· |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| All the hapless silent lovers, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked, | 17 | ··/˘˘··/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| All the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the dying, | 17 | ··/˘··/˘˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| I too with my soul and body, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way, | 16 | ··/˘˘/·/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| Through these shores amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing, | 16 | ···˘/·/····˘/˘/˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Lo, the darting bowling orb! | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Lo, the brother orbs around, all the clustering suns and planets, | 16 | ··/˘·····/˘˘··/˘ |
| All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams, | 13 | ··/˘˘···/˘··· |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| These are of us, they are with us, | 8 | ········ |
| All for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait behind, | 20 | ··/˘/˘···/˘˘··/˘···· |
| We to-day’s procession heading, we the route for travel clearing, | 16 | ···˘/˘/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| O you daughters of the West! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives! | 15 | ····/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united, | 17 | /˘···˘/˘·/˘···˘/˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Minstrels latent on the prairies! | 8 | /˘/˘··/˘ |
| (Shrouded bards of other lands, you may rest, you have done your work,) | 15 | /˘··/˘········· |
| Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us, | 17 | ····/˘/˘˘·····˘/· |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Not for delectations sweet, | 7 | ······· |
| Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious, | 17 | ··/˘··/˘··/˘··/˘˘ |
| Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment, | 16 | ··/˘··/˘·····˘/˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Do the feasters gluttonous feast? | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock’d and bolted doors? | 15 | ··/˘˘/˘·····/˘· |
| Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, | 15 | ··/˘·/˘···/˘··· |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Has the night descended? | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged nodding | 16 | ······/˘···˘/˘/˘ |
| on our way? | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivious, | 18 | ··/˘/˘········˘/˘˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Till with sound of trumpet, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Far, far off the daybreak call--hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind, | 16 | ····/··········· |
| Swift! to the head of the army!--swift! spring to your places, | 14 | ······/˘····/˘ |
| Pioneers! O pioneers! | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
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