Trickle Drops
Trickle drops! my blue veins leaving!O drops of me! trickle, slow drops,Candid from me falling, drip, bleeding drops,From wounds made to free you whence you were prison’d,From my face, from my forehead and lips,From my breast, from within where I was conceal’d, press forth reddrops, confession drops,Stain every page, stain every song I sing, every word I say, bloody drops,Let them know your scarlet heat, let them glisten,Saturate them with yourself all ashamed and wet,Glow upon all I have written or shall write, bleeding drops,Let it all be seen in your light, blushing drops.
Words in this poem
- drip v. i.
- To fall in drops; as, water drips from the eaves. [Akin to LG. drippen, Dan. dryppe, from a noun. See Drop.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Trickle Drops 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, Trickle Drops, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/trickle-drops.html, id L03872.
Form and metre
Trickle Drops is 12 lines in a single stanza. 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% 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---AA--AA leaving · dropsA · dropsA · prison'd · lips · red · dropsA · dropsA · glisten · wet · dropsA · dropsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Trickle drops! my blue veins leaving! | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| O drops of me! trickle, slow drops, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Candid from me falling, drip, bleeding drops, | 10 | /˘··/˘·/˘· |
| From wounds made to free you whence you were prison’d, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| From my face, from my forehead and lips, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| From my breast, from within where I was conceal’d, press forth red | 14 | ·········˘/··· |
| drops, confession drops, | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| Stain every page, stain every song I sing, every word I say, bloody drops, | 21 | ·/˘˘··/˘˘···/˘˘···/˘· |
| Let them know your scarlet heat, let them glisten, | 11 | ····/˘···/˘ |
| Saturate them with yourself all ashamed and wet, | 12 | /˘···˘/·˘/·· |
| Glow upon all I have written or shall write, bleeding drops, | 14 | ······/˘···/˘· |
| Let it all be seen in your light, blushing drops. | 11 | ········/˘· |
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.