To a Common Prostitute
Be composed--be at ease with me--I am Walt Whitman, liberal andlusty as Nature,Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you,Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves torustle for you, do my words refuse to glisten and rustle for you.
My girl I appoint with you an appointment, and I charge you that youmake preparation to be worthy to meet me,And I charge you that you be patient and perfect till I come.
Words in this poem
- rustle v. i.
- To make a quick succession of small sounds, like the rubbing or moving of silk cloth or dry leaves. [AS. hristlan to rustle; or cf. Sw. rusta to stir, make a riot, or E. rush, v.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Common Prostitute 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, To a Common Prostitute, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/to-a-common-prostitute.html, id L03998.
Form and metre
To a Common Prostitute is 8 lines in 2 stanzas. 70% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% 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 --AAA and · nature · youA · toA · youA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Be composed--be at ease with me--I am Walt Whitman, liberal and | 17 | ·˘/········/˘/˘˘· |
| lusty as Nature, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you, | 12 | ····˘/···˘/· |
| Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves to | 16 | ···/˘˘/·/˘······ |
| rustle for you, do my words refuse to glisten and rustle for you. | 17 | /˘·····˘/·/˘·/˘·· |
| My girl I appoint with you an appointment, and I charge you that you | 17 | ···˘/···˘/˘······ |
| make preparation to be worthy to meet me, | 12 | ··˘/˘··/˘··· |
| And I charge you that you be patient and perfect till I come. | 15 | ·······/˘·˘/··· |
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.