The Commonplace
The commonplace I sing;How cheap is health! how cheap nobility!Abstinence, no falsehood, no gluttony, lust;The open air I sing, freedom, toleration,(Take here the mainest lesson--less from books--less from the schools,)The common day and night--the common earth and waters,Your farm--your work, trade, occupation,The democratic wisdom underneath, like solid ground for all.
The devilish and the dark, the dying and diseas’d,The countless (nineteen-twentieths) low and evil, crude and savage,The crazed, prisoners in jail, the horrible, rank, malignant,Venom and filth, serpents, the ravenous sharks, liars, the dissolute;(What is the part the wicked and the loathesome bear within earth’sorbic scheme?)Newts, crawling things in slime and mud, poisons,The barren soil, the evil men, the slag and hideous rot.
Words in this poem
- gluttony n.
- Excess in eating; extravagant indulgence of the appetite for food; voracity. [OE. glotonie, OF. glotonie, gloutonnie.]
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
- toleration n.
- The act of tolerating; the allowance of that which is not wholly approved. [L. toleratio: cf. OF. toleration.]
- countless a.
- Incapable of being counted; not ascertainable; innumerable.
- dissolute a.
- With nerves unstrung; weak. [L. dissolutus, p. p. of dissolvere: cf. F. dissolu. See Dissolve.]
- orbic a.
- Spherical; orbicular; orblike; circular. [L. orbicus, or orbitus, fr. orbis orb.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Commonplace 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, The Commonplace, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/the-commonplace.html, id L04141.
Form and metre
The Commonplace is 16 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.2 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% 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- sing · nobility · lust · tolerationA · schools · waters · occupationA · all
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The commonplace I sing; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| How cheap is health! how cheap nobility! | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Abstinence, no falsehood, no gluttony, lust; | 11 | /˘˘·/··/˘˘· |
| The open air I sing, freedom, toleration, | 12 | ·/˘···/˘·˘/˘ |
| (Take here the mainest lesson--less from books--less from the schools,) | 14 | ···/˘/˘······· |
| The common day and night--the common earth and waters, | 13 | ·/˘····/˘··/˘ |
| Your farm--your work, trade, occupation, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| The democratic wisdom underneath, like solid ground for all. | 16 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/·/˘··· |
| The devilish and the dark, the dying and diseas’d, | 12 | ·/˘····/˘·˘/ |
| The countless (nineteen-twentieths) low and evil, crude and savage, | 16 | ·/˘///˘˘··/˘··/˘ |
| The crazed, prisoners in jail, the horrible, rank, malignant, | 15 | ··/˘˘···/˘˘·˘/˘ |
| Venom and filth, serpents, the ravenous sharks, liars, the dissolute; | 17 | /˘··/˘·/˘˘·/˘·/˘˘ |
| (What is the part the wicked and the loathesome bear within earth’s | 16 | ·····/˘········· |
| orbic scheme?) | 3 | ··· |
| Newts, crawling things in slime and mud, poisons, | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| The barren soil, the evil men, the slag and hideous rot. | 15 | ·/˘··/˘····/˘˘· |
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.