While Not the Past Forgetting
While not the past forgetting,To-day, at least, contention sunk entire--peace, brotherhood uprisen;For sign reciprocal our Northern, Southern hands,Lay on the graves of all dead soldiers, North or South,(Nor for the past alone--for meanings to the future,)Wreaths of roses and branches of palm.
About this text
While Not the Past Forgetting 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, While Not the Past Forgetting, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/while-not-the-past-forgetting.html, id L04106.
Form and metre
While Not the Past Forgetting is 6 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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.
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. Read against iambic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| While not the past forgetting, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| To-day, at least, contention sunk entire--peace, brotherhood uprisen; | 18 | ····˘/˘·˘/˘·/˘···· |
| For sign reciprocal our Northern, Southern hands, | 13 | ··˘/˘˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Lay on the graves of all dead soldiers, North or South, | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| (Nor for the past alone--for meanings to the future,) | 13 | ····˘/·/˘··/˘ |
| Wreaths of roses and branches of palm. | 9 | ··/˘·/˘·· |
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.