When I Read the Book
When I read the book, the biography famous,And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man’s life?And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life?(As if any man really knew aught of my life,Why even I myself I often think know little or nothing of my real life,Only a few hints, a few diffused faint clews and indirectionsI seek for my own use to trace out here.)
Words in this poem
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
When I Read the Book 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, When I Read the Book, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/when-i-read-the-book.html, id L03831.
Form and metre
When I Read the Book is 7 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines. The lines average 14.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 -AAAA-- famous · lifeA · lifeA · lifeA · lifeA · indirections · here
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I read the book, the biography famous, | 12 | ······˘/˘˘/˘ |
| And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man’s life? | 14 | ········/˘···· |
| And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life? | 14 | ·············· |
| (As if any man really knew aught of my life, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘····· |
| Why even I myself I often think know little or nothing of my real life, | 20 | ·/˘··/·/˘··/˘·/˘···· |
| Only a few hints, a few diffused faint clews and indirections | 16 | /˘·····˘/······· |
| I seek for my own use to trace out here.) | 10 | ·········· |
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.