Poets to Come
Poets to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for,But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater thanbefore known,Arouse! for you must justify me.
I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future,I but advance a moment only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness.
I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns acasual look upon you and then averts his face,Leaving it to you to prove and define it,Expecting the main things from you.
About this text
Poets to Come 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, Poets to Come, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/poets-to-come.html, id L03844.
Form and metre
Poets to Come is 11 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 76% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Poets to come! orators, singers, musicians to come! | 14 | /˘··/˘˘/˘˘/˘·· |
| Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for, | 16 | ·····/˘···/˘···· |
| But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than | 17 | ·····/˘˘/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| before known, | 3 | ··· |
| Arouse! for you must justify me. | 9 | ˘/···/˘·· |
| I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future, | 17 | ··/·····˘/˘˘···/˘ |
| I but advance a moment only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness. | 19 | ··˘/·/˘/˘···/˘···/˘ |
| I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns a | 18 | ·····/˘˘˘/··/˘/˘·· |
| casual look upon you and then averts his face, | 13 | /˘˘······˘/·· |
| Leaving it to you to prove and define it, | 11 | /˘······˘/· |
| Expecting the main things from you. | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
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.