To Get the Final Lilt of Songs
To get the final lilt of songs,To penetrate the inmost lore of poets--to know the mighty ones,Job, Homer, Eschylus, Dante, Shakespere, Tennyson, Emerson;To diagnose the shifting-delicate tints of love and pride and doubt--to truly understand,To encompass these, the last keen faculty and entrance-price,Old age, and what it brings from all its past experiences.
Words in this poem
- lilt v. i.
- To do anything with animation and quickness, as to skip, fly, or hop. [Cf. Norw. lilla, lirla, to sing in a high tone.]
- inmost a.
- Deepest within; farthest from the surface or external part; innermost. [OE. innemest, AS. innemest, a double superlative form fr. inne within, fr. in in. The modern form is due to confusion with most. See In, and cf. Aftermost, Fore]
- diagnose v. t.
- To ascertain by diagnosis; to diagnosticate. See Diagnosticate.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Get the Final Lilt of Songs 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 Get the Final Lilt of Songs, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/to-get-the-final-lilt-of-songs.html, id L04094.
Form and metre
To Get the Final Lilt of Songs is 7 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic octameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.6 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic octameter.
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. Read against iambic octameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| To get the final lilt of songs, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To penetrate the inmost lore of poets--to know the mighty ones, | 17 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘···/˘· |
| Job, Homer, Eschylus, Dante, Shakespere, Tennyson, Emerson; | 17 | ·/˘···/˘···/˘˘/˘˘ |
| To diagnose the shifting-delicate tints of love and pride and doubt-- | 17 | ··˘/·/˘/˘˘······· |
| to truly understand, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| To encompass these, the last keen faculty and entrance-price, | 15 | ·˘/˘····/˘˘·/˘· |
| Old age, and what it brings from all its past experiences. | 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.