Queries to My Seventieth Year
Approaching, nearing, curious,Thou dim, uncertain spectre--bringest thou life or death?Strength, weakness, blindness, more paralysis and heavier?Or placid skies and sun? Wilt stir the waters yet?Or haply cut me short for good? Or leave me here as now,Dull, parrot-like and old, with crack’d voice harping, screeching?
Words in this poem
- 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.]
- spectre n.
- Something preternaturally visible; an apparition; a ghost; a phantom. [F. spectre, fr. L. spectrum an appearance, image, specter, fr. specere to look. See Spy, and cf. Spectrum.]
- placid a.
- Pleased; contented; unruffied; undisturbed; serene; peaceful; tranquil; quiet; gentle. [L. placidus, originally, pleasing, mild, from placere to please: cf. F. placide. See Please.]
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- harping a.
- Pertaining to the harp; as, harping symphonies.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Queries to My Seventieth Year 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, Queries to My Seventieth Year, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/queries-to-my-seventieth-year.html, id L04080.
Form and metre
Queries to My Seventieth Year is 6 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 88%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.3 syllables. 3 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Approaching, nearing, curious, | 8 | ˘/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Thou dim, uncertain spectre--bringest thou life or death? | 13 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘···· |
| Strength, weakness, blindness, more paralysis and heavier? | 14 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| Or placid skies and sun? Wilt stir the waters yet? | 12 | ·/˘······/˘· |
| Or haply cut me short for good? Or leave me here as now, | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| Dull, parrot-like and old, with crack’d voice harping, screeching? | 13 | ·/˘······/˘/˘ |
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.