To Thee Old Cause
To thee old cause!Thou peerless, passionate, good cause,Thou stern, remorseless, sweet idea,Deathless throughout the ages, races, lands,After a strange sad war, great war for thee,(I think all war through time was really fought, and ever will bereally fought, for thee,)These chants for thee, the eternal march of thee.
(A war O soldiers not for itself alone,Far, far more stood silently waiting behind, now to advance in this book.)
Thou orb of many orbs!Thou seething principle! thou well-kept, latent germ! thou centre!Around the idea of thee the war revolving,With all its angry and vehement play of causes,(With vast results to come for thrice a thousand years,)These recitatives for thee,--my book and the war are one,Merged in its spirit I and mine, as the contest hinged on thee,As a wheel on its axis turns, this book unwitting to itself,Around the idea of thee.
Words in this poem
- remorseless a.
- Being without remorse; having no pity; hence, destitute of sensibility; cruel; insensible to distress; merciless.
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- hinged a.
- Furnished with hinges.
- unwitting a.
- Not knowing; unconscious; ignorant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Thee Old Cause 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 Thee Old Cause, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/to-thee-old-cause.html, id L03828.
Form and metre
To Thee Old Cause is 19 lines in 3 stanzas. 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 5% 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 AA--BBBB causeA · causeA · idea · lands · theeB · beB · theeB · theeB
- 3 ------A-A orbs · centre · revolving · causes · years · one · theeA · itself · theeA
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 thee old cause! | 4 | ···· |
| Thou peerless, passionate, good cause, | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| Thou stern, remorseless, sweet idea, | 9 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Deathless throughout the ages, races, lands, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| After a strange sad war, great war for thee, | 10 | ·········· |
| (I think all war through time was really fought, and ever will be | 15 | ·······/˘··/˘·· |
| really fought, for thee,) | 5 | /˘··· |
| These chants for thee, the eternal march of thee. | 11 | ·····˘/˘··· |
| (A war O soldiers not for itself alone, | 11 | ···/˘··˘/˘/ |
| Far, far more stood silently waiting behind, now to advance in this book.) | 18 | ····/˘˘/˘····˘/··· |
| Thou orb of many orbs! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thou seething principle! thou well-kept, latent germ! thou centre! | 15 | ·/˘/˘˘···/˘··/˘ |
| Around the idea of thee the war revolving, | 13 | ···˘/˘····˘/˘ |
| With all its angry and vehement play of causes, | 13 | ···/˘·/˘˘··/˘ |
| (With vast results to come for thrice a thousand years,) | 12 | ··˘/·····/˘· |
| These recitatives for thee,--my book and the war are one, | 14 | ··˘˘/········· |
| Merged in its spirit I and mine, as the contest hinged on thee, | 15 | ···/˘·····/˘··· |
| As a wheel on its axis turns, this book unwitting to itself, | 16 | ·····/˘···˘/˘·˘/ |
| Around the idea of 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.