Thought
A huge sob--a few bubbles--the white foam spirting up--and then thewomen gone,Sinking there while the passionless wet flows on--and I nowpondering, Are those women indeed gone?Are souls drown’d and destroy’d so?Is only matter triumphant?
Words in this poem
- passionless a.
- Void of passion; without anger or emotion; not easily excited; calm.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Thought 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, Thought, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/thought-2.html, id L04034.
Form and metre
Thought is 6 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 9.7 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.
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-- the · goneA · now · goneA · so · triumphant
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A huge sob--a few bubbles--the white foam spirting up--and then the | 16 | ·····/˘········· |
| women gone, | 3 | /˘· |
| Sinking there while the passionless wet flows on--and I now | 14 | /˘···/˘˘······ |
| pondering, Are those women indeed gone? | 10 | /˘˘··/˘˘/· |
| Are souls drown’d and destroy’d so? | 7 | ····˘/· |
| Is only matter triumphant? | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘ |
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.