To-Day and Thee
The appointed winners in a long-stretch’d game;The course of Time and nations--Egypt, India, Greece and Rome;The past entire, with all its heroes, histories, arts, experiments,Its store of songs, inventions, voyages, teachers, books,Garner’d for now and thee--To think of it!The heirdom all converged in thee!
Words in this poem
- heirdom n.
- The state of an heir; succession by inheritance. Burke.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To-Day and Thee 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-Day and Thee, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/to-day-and-thee.html, id L04084.
Form and metre
To-Day and Thee is 6 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The lines average 12.5 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The appointed winners in a long-stretch’d game; | 11 | ·˘/˘/˘····· |
| The course of Time and nations--Egypt, India, Greece and Rome; | 15 | ·····/˘/˘/˘˘··· |
| The past entire, with all its heroes, histories, arts, experiments, | 18 | ··˘/˘···/˘/˘˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Its store of songs, inventions, voyages, teachers, books, | 13 | ····˘/˘/˘˘/˘· |
| Garner’d for now and thee--To think of it! | 10 | /˘········ |
| The heirdom all converged in thee! | 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.