That Music Always Round Me
That music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning, yet longuntaught I did not hear,But now the chorus I hear and am elated,A tenor, strong, ascending with power and health, with glad notes ofdaybreak I hear,A soprano at intervals sailing buoyantly over the tops of immense waves,A transparent base shuddering lusciously under and through the universe,The triumphant tutti, the funeral wailings with sweet flutes andviolins, all these I fill myself with,I hear not the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the exquisitemeanings,I listen to the different voices winding in and out, striving,contending with fiery vehemence to excel each other in emotion;I do not think the performers know themselves--but now I thinkbegin to know them.
Words in this poem
- daybreak n.
- The time of the first appearance of light in the morning.
- tutti n.
- All; -- a direction for all the singers or players to perform together. Moore (Encyc. of Music). [It., fr. L. totus, pl. toti, all.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
That Music Always Round Me 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, That Music Always Round Me, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/that-music-always-round-me.html, id L04028.
Form and metre
That Music Always Round Me is 15 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 79% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.1 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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 -A--A---------- long · hearA · elated · of · hearA · waves · universe · and · with · exquisite · meanings · striving · emotion · think · them
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning, yet long | 16 | ·/˘/···˘/˘······ |
| untaught I did not hear, | 6 | ······ |
| But now the chorus I hear and am elated, | 12 | ···/˘····˘/˘ |
| A tenor, strong, ascending with power and health, with glad notes of | 16 | ·/˘·˘/˘·/˘······ |
| daybreak I hear, | 4 | /··· |
| A soprano at intervals sailing buoyantly over the tops of immense waves, | 20 | ·˘/˘·/˘˘/˘·······˘/· |
| A transparent base shuddering lusciously under and through the universe, | 19 | ·˘/˘·/˘˘········/˘· |
| The triumphant tutti, the funeral wailings with sweet flutes and | 16 | ·˘/˘/˘·/˘˘/˘···· |
| violins, all these I fill myself with, | 10 | ˘˘/·····/· |
| I hear not the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the exquisite | 18 | ····/˘··/˘·····/˘˘ |
| meanings, | 2 | /˘ |
| I listen to the different voices winding in and out, striving, | 17 | ·/˘··/˘˘/˘/˘···/˘ |
| contending with fiery vehemence to excel each other in emotion; | 20 | ˘/˘·/˘˘/˘˘·˘/·/˘·˘/˘ |
| I do not think the performers know themselves--but now I think | 15 | ·····˘/˘·˘/···· |
| begin to know them. | 5 | ˘/··· |
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.