Race of Veterans
Race of veterans--race of victors!Race of the soil, ready for conflict--race of the conquering march!(No more credulity’s race, abiding-temper’d race,)Race henceforth owning no law but the law of itself,Race of passion and the storm.
Words in this poem
- henceforth adv.
- From this time forward; henceforward.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Race of Veterans 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, Race of Veterans, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/race-of-veterans.html, id L03963.
Form and metre
Race of Veterans is 5 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 11.6 syllables. 1 line ends 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Race of veterans--race of victors! | 9 | ··/˘˘··/˘ |
| Race of the soil, ready for conflict--race of the conquering march! | 16 | ····/˘·/˘···/˘˘· |
| (No more credulity’s race, abiding-temper’d race,) | 13 | ··˘/˘˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| Race henceforth owning no law but the law of itself, | 13 | ·///˘······˘/ |
| Race of passion and the storm. | 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.