The Torch
On my Northwest coast in the midst of the night a fishermen’s groupstands watching,Out on the lake that expands before them, others are spearing salmon,The canoe, a dim shadowy thing, moves across the black water,Bearing a torch ablaze at the prow.
Words in this poem
- ablaze adv.
- On fire; in a blaze, gleaming. Milman. [Pref. a- + blaze.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Torch 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 Torch, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/the-torch.html, id L04009.
Form and metre
The Torch is 5 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 12.2 syllables. 3 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 |
|---|---|---|
| On my Northwest coast in the midst of the night a fishermen’s group | 16 | ···/········/˘˘· |
| stands watching, | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Out on the lake that expands before them, others are spearing salmon, | 17 | ·····˘/···/˘·/˘/˘ |
| The canoe, a dim shadowy thing, moves across the black water, | 16 | ·˘/··/˘˘··˘/··/˘ |
| Bearing a torch ablaze at the prow. | 9 | /˘··˘/··· |
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.