The Sobbing of the Bells
The sobbing of the bells, the sudden death-news everywhere,The slumberers rouse, the rapport of the People,(Full well they know that message in the darkness,Full well return, respond within their breasts, their brains, thesad reverberations,)The passionate toll and clang--city to city, joining, sounding, passing,Those heart-beats of a Nation in the night.
Words in this poem
- sobbing n.
- A series of short, convulsive inspirations, the glottis being suddenly closed so that little or no air enters into the lungs.
- rapport n.
- Relation; proportion; conformity; correspondence; accord. [F., fr. rapporter to bring again or back, to refer; pref. re- re- + apporter to bring, L. apporter to bring, L. apportare. Cf. Report.]
- clang v. t.
- To strike together so as to produce a ringing metallic sound. [L. clangere; akin to Gr. clank.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sobbing of the Bells 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 Sobbing of the Bells, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/the-sobbing-of-the-bells.html, id L04067.
Form and metre
The Sobbing of the Bells is 7 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The lines average 12.0 syllables. 4 lines end 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 |
|---|---|---|
| The sobbing of the bells, the sudden death-news everywhere, | 14 | ·/˘····/˘··/˘· |
| The slumberers rouse, the rapport of the People, | 12 | ······˘/··/˘ |
| (Full well they know that message in the darkness, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Full well return, respond within their breasts, their brains, the | 13 | ··˘/˘/······· |
| sad reverberations,) | 6 | ·˘·˘/˘ |
| The passionate toll and clang--city to city, joining, sounding, passing, | 18 | ·/˘˘···/˘·/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Those heart-beats of a Nation in the night. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
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.