Thick-Sprinkled Bunting
Thick-sprinkled bunting! flag of stars!Long yet your road, fateful flag--long yet your road, and lined withbloody death,For the prize I see at issue at last is the world,All its ships and shores I see interwoven with your threads greedy banner;Dream’d again the flags of kings, highest borne to flaunt unrival’d?O hasten flag of man--O with sure and steady step, passing highestflags of kings,Walk supreme to the heavens mighty symbol--run up above them all,Flag of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting!
What best I see in thee,Is not that where thou mov’st down history’s great highways,Ever undimm’d by time shoots warlike victory’s dazzle,Or that thou sat’st where Washington sat, ruling the land in peace,Or thou the man whom feudal Europe feted, venerable Asia swarm’d upon,Who walk’d with kings with even pace the round world’s promenade;But that in foreign lands, in all thy walks with kings,Those prairie sovereigns of the West, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois,Ohio’s, Indiana’s millions, comrades, farmers, soldiers, all to the front,Invisibly with thee walking with kings with even pace the roundworld’s promenade,Were all so justified.
Words in this poem
- fateful a.
- Having the power of serving or accomplishing fate.
- flaunt n.
- Anything displayed for show.
- dazzle v. t.
- To overpower with light; to confuse the sight of by brilliance of light. [Freq. of daze.]
- promenade n.
- A walk for pleasure, display, or exercise. Burke. [F. (with a foreign suffix), from promener to lead, take for a walk, se promener to walk, from L. prominare to drive forward or along; pro forward + minare to dr]
- kansas n.
- A tribe of Indians allied to the Winnebagoes and Osages. They formerly inhabited the region which is now the State of Kansas, but were removed to the Indian Territory.
- illinois n.
- A tribe of North American Indians, which formerly occupied the region between the Wabash and Mississippi rivers.
- invisibly adv.
- In an invisible manner, Denham.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Thick-Sprinkled Bunting 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, Thick-Sprinkled Bunting, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/thick-sprinkled-bunting.html, id L04054.
Form and metre
Thick-Sprinkled Bunting is 22 lines in 2 stanzas. 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.3 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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---- stars · with · death · worldA · banner · unrival'dA · highest · kings · all · bunting
- 2 -----A----A- thee · highways · dazzle · peace · upon · promenadeA · kings · illinois · front · round · promenadeA · justified
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thick-sprinkled bunting! flag of stars! | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Long yet your road, fateful flag--long yet your road, and lined with | 14 | ····/˘········ |
| bloody death, | 3 | /˘· |
| For the prize I see at issue at last is the world, | 13 | ······/˘····· |
| All its ships and shores I see interwoven with your threads greedy banner; | 18 | ········˘/˘···/˘/˘ |
| Dream’d again the flags of kings, highest borne to flaunt unrival’d? | 15 | ·˘/····/˘···˘/˘ |
| O hasten flag of man--O with sure and steady step, passing highest | 17 | ·/˘·······/˘·/˘/˘ |
| flags of kings, | 3 | ··· |
| Walk supreme to the heavens mighty symbol--run up above them all, | 17 | ·˘/··/˘/˘/˘······ |
| Flag of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting! | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| What best I see in thee, | 6 | ······ |
| Is not that where thou mov’st down history’s great highways, | 13 | ·······/˘˘·/· |
| Ever undimm’d by time shoots warlike victory’s dazzle, | 14 | /˘·····/·/˘˘/˘ |
| Or that thou sat’st where Washington sat, ruling the land in peace, | 15 | ·····/˘˘·/˘···· |
| Or thou the man whom feudal Europe feted, venerable Asia swarm’d upon, | 20 | ·····/˘/˘/˘/˘˘˘/˘··· |
| Who walk’d with kings with even pace the round world’s promenade; | 14 | ·····/˘·····˘/ |
| But that in foreign lands, in all thy walks with kings, | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| Those prairie sovereigns of the West, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, | 16 | ·/˘/˘···/˘˘/˘·˘/ |
| Ohio’s, Indiana’s millions, comrades, farmers, soldiers, all to the front, | 19 | ˘/˘·˘/˘/˘/·/˘/˘···· |
| Invisibly with thee walking with kings with even pace the round | 16 | ˘/˘˘··/˘···/˘··· |
| world’s promenade, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Were all so justified. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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