The First Dandelion
Simple and fresh and fair from winter’s close emerging,As if no artifice of fashion, business, politics, had ever been,Forth from its sunny nook of shelter’d grass--innocent, golden, calmas the dawn,The spring’s first dandelion shows its trustful face.
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- nook n.
- A narrow place formed by an angle in bodies or between bodies; a corner; a recess; a secluded retreat. [OE. nok; cf. Gael. & Ir. niuc.]
- trustful a.
- Full of trust; trusting.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The First Dandelion 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 First Dandelion, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/the-first-dandelion.html, id L04082.
Form and metre
The First Dandelion is 5 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 12.4 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Simple and fresh and fair from winter’s close emerging, | 13 | /˘·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| As if no artifice of fashion, business, politics, had ever been, | 18 | ···/˘˘·/˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Forth from its sunny nook of shelter’d grass--innocent, golden, calm | 16 | ···/˘··/˘·/˘˘/˘· |
| as the dawn, | 3 | ··· |
| The spring’s first dandelion shows its trustful face. | 12 | ···/˘·˘··/˘· |
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.