Tears
Tears! tears! tears!In the night, in solitude, tears,On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck’d in by the sand,Tears, not a star shining, all dark and desolate,Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head;O who is that ghost? that form in the dark, with tears?What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouch’d there on the sand?Streaming tears, sobbing tears, throes, choked with wild cries;O storm, embodied, rising, careering with swift steps along the beach!O wild and dismal night storm, with wind--O belching and desperate!O shade so sedate and decorous by day, with calm countenance andregulated pace,But away at night as you fly, none looking--O then the unloosen’d ocean,Of tears! tears! tears!
Words in this poem
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- sobbing n.
- A series of short, convulsive inspirations, the glottis being suddenly closed so that little or no air enters into the lungs.
- dismal a.
- Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Formerly a noun; e. g., "I trow it was in the dismalle." Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. dîme, tithe, the phr]
- desperate a.
- Without hope; given to despair; hopeless. [L. desperatus, p. p. of desperare. See Despair, and cf. Desperado.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Tears 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, Tears, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/tears.html, id L03913.
Form and metre
Tears is 14 lines in a single stanza. 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.3 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% 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.
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.
- 1 AAB--AB---B--A tearsA · tearsA · sandB · desolate · head · tearsA · sandB · cries · beach · desperate · andB · pace · ocean · tearsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tears! tears! tears! | 3 | ··· |
| In the night, in solitude, tears, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck’d in by the sand, | 13 | ····/˘/˘····· |
| Tears, not a star shining, all dark and desolate, | 12 | ····/˘···/˘˘ |
| Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| O who is that ghost? that form in the dark, with tears? | 12 | ············ |
| What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouch’d there on the sand? | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| Streaming tears, sobbing tears, throes, choked with wild cries; | 11 | /˘·/˘······ |
| O storm, embodied, rising, careering with swift steps along the beach! | 17 | ··˘/˘/˘˘/˘···˘/·· |
| O wild and dismal night storm, with wind--O belching and desperate! | 15 | ···/˘·····/˘·/˘ |
| O shade so sedate and decorous by day, with calm countenance and | 17 | ···˘/·/˘˘····/˘˘· |
| regulated pace, | 5 | /˘·˘· |
| But away at night as you fly, none looking--O then the unloosen’d ocean, | 19 | ·˘/······/˘······/˘ |
| Of tears! tears! tears! | 4 | ···· |
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.