To the Leaven’d Soil They Trod
To the leaven’d soil they trod calling I sing for the last,(Forth from my tent emerging for good, loosing, untying the tent-ropes,)In the freshness the forenoon air, in the far-stretching circuitsand vistas again to peace restored,To the fiery fields emanative and the endless vistas beyond, to theSouth and the North,To the leaven’d soil of the general Western world to attest my songs,To the Alleghanian hills and the tireless Mississippi,To the rocks I calling sing, and all the trees in the woods,To the plains of the poems of heroes, to the prairies spreading wide,To the far-off sea and the unseen winds, and the sane impalpable air;And responding they answer all, (but not in words,)The average earth, the witness of war and peace, acknowledges mutely,The prairie draws me close, as the father to bosom broad the son,The Northern ice and rain that began me nourish me to the end,But the hot sun of the South is to fully ripen my songs.
Words in this poem
- forenoon n.
- The early part of the day, from morning to meridian, or noon.
- emanative a.
- Issuing forth; effluent.
- attest v. t.
- To bear witness to; to certify; to affirm to be true or genuine; as, to attest the truth of a writing, a copy of record. [L. attestari; ad + testari to bear witness: cf. F. attester.]
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- sane a.
- Being in a healthy condition; not deranged; acting rationally; -- said of the mind. [L. sanus; cf. Gr. Sound, a.]
- mutely adv.
- Without uttering words or sounds; in a mute manner; silently.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Leaven’d Soil They Trod 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 the Leaven’d Soil They Trod, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/to-the-leaven-d-soil-they-trod.html, id L03975.
Form and metre
To the Leaven’d Soil They Trod is 16 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 75% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 14.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 last · ropes · circuits · restored · the · north · songsA · mississippi · woods · wide · air · words · mutely · son · end · songsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To the leaven’d soil they trod calling I sing for the last, | 14 | ··/˘···/˘····· |
| (Forth from my tent emerging for good, loosing, untying the tent-ropes,) | 16 | ····˘/˘··/˘····· |
| In the freshness the forenoon air, in the far-stretching circuits | 15 | ··/˘·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| and vistas again to peace restored, | 9 | ·/˘˘/··˘/ |
| To the fiery fields emanative and the endless vistas beyond, to the | 20 | ··/˘˘·/˘˘˘··/˘/˘···· |
| South and the North, | 4 | ···· |
| To the leaven’d soil of the general Western world to attest my songs, | 18 | ··/˘···/˘˘/˘··˘/·· |
| To the Alleghanian hills and the tireless Mississippi, | 16 | ·········/˘˘·˘/˘ |
| To the rocks I calling sing, and all the trees in the woods, | 14 | ····/˘········ |
| To the plains of the poems of heroes, to the prairies spreading wide, | 17 | ·····/˘·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| To the far-off sea and the unseen winds, and the sane impalpable air; | 18 | ·······˘/····˘/˘˘· |
| And responding they answer all, (but not in words,) | 12 | ·˘/˘·/˘····· |
| The average earth, the witness of war and peace, acknowledges mutely, | 18 | ·/˘˘··/˘····˘/˘˘/˘ |
| The prairie draws me close, as the father to bosom broad the son, | 16 | ·/˘·····/˘·/˘··· |
| The Northern ice and rain that began me nourish me to the end, | 16 | ·/˘····˘/·/˘···· |
| But the hot sun of the South is to fully ripen my songs. | 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.