The Wallabout Martyrs
Greater than memory of Achilles or Ulysses,More, more by far to thee than tomb of Alexander,Those cart loads of old charnel ashes, scales and splints of mouldy bones,Once living men--once resolute courage, aspiration, strength,The stepping stones to thee to-day and here, America.
Words in this poem
- mouldy a.
- Overgrown with, or containing, mold; as, moldy cheese or bread. [From Mold the growth of fungi.]
- aspiration n.
- The act of aspirating; the pronunciation of a letter with a full or strong emission of breath; an aspirated sound. [L. aspiratio, fr. aspirare: cf. F. aspiration.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wallabout Martyrs 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 Wallabout Martyrs, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/the-wallabout-martyrs.html, id L04081.
Form and metre
The Wallabout Martyrs is 5 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 14.4 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Greater than memory of Achilles or Ulysses, | 14 | /˘·/˘˘·˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| More, more by far to thee than tomb of Alexander, | 13 | ··········˘/˘ |
| Those cart loads of old charnel ashes, scales and splints of mouldy bones, | 16 | ·····/˘/˘····/˘· |
| Once living men--once resolute courage, aspiration, strength, | 15 | ·/˘··/˘·/˘·˘/˘· |
| The stepping stones to thee to-day and here, America. | 14 | ·/˘·······˘/˘˘ |
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.