What Think You I Take My Pen in Hand?
What think you I take my pen in hand to record?The battle-ship, perfect-model’d, majestic, that I saw pass theoffing to-day under full sail?The splendors of the past day? or the splendor of the night thatenvelops me?Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city spread around me? --no;But merely of two simple men I saw to-day on the pier in the midstof the crowd, parting the parting of dear friends,The one to remain hung on the other’s neck and passionately kiss’d him,While the one to depart tightly prest the one to remain in his arms.
Words in this poem
- passionately adv.
- In a passionate manner; with strong feeling; ardently.
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- prest a.
- Ready; prompt; prepared. [OF. prest, F. prêt, fr. L. praestus ready. Cf. Presto.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
What Think You I Take My Pen in Hand? 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, What Think You I Take My Pen in Hand?, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/what-think-you-i-take-my-pen-in-hand.html, id L03887.
Form and metre
What Think You I Take My Pen in Hand? is 10 lines in a single stanza. 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.7 syllables. 30% 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----- record · theA · sail · that · meA · no · midst · friends · him · arms
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What think you I take my pen in hand to record? | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| The battle-ship, perfect-model’d, majestic, that I saw pass the | 16 | ·/˘·˘//˘˘/˘····· |
| offing to-day under full sail? | 8 | /˘······ |
| The splendors of the past day? or the splendor of the night that | 15 | ·/˘······/˘···· |
| envelops me? | 4 | ˘/˘· |
| Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city spread around me? --no; | 18 | ··/˘/˘·····/˘····· |
| But merely of two simple men I saw to-day on the pier in the midst | 18 | ·/˘··/˘··········· |
| of the crowd, parting the parting of dear friends, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| The one to remain hung on the other’s neck and passionately kiss’d him, | 18 | ···˘/···/˘··/˘˘˘·· |
| While the one to depart tightly prest the one to remain in his arms. | 17 | ····˘//˘····˘/··· |
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.