With All Thy Gifts
With all thy gifts America,Standing secure, rapidly tending, overlooking the world,Power, wealth, extent, vouchsafed to thee--with these and like ofthese vouchsafed to thee,What if one gift thou lackest? (the ultimate human problem never solving,)The gift of perfect women fit for thee--what if that gift of giftsthou lackest?The towering feminine of thee? the beauty, health, completion, fit for thee?The mothers fit for thee?
Words in this poem
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- towering a.
- Very high; elevated; rising aloft; as, a towering height.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
With All Thy Gifts 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, With All Thy Gifts, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/with-all-thy-gifts.html, id L04013.
Form and metre
With All Thy Gifts is 9 lines in a single stanza. 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.7 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 22% 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---AA america · world · of · theeA · solving · gifts · lackest · theeA · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| With all thy gifts America, | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Standing secure, rapidly tending, overlooking the world, | 15 | /˘˘//˘˘/˘/˘·˘·· |
| Power, wealth, extent, vouchsafed to thee--with these and like of | 14 | /˘·˘/········· |
| these vouchsafed to thee, | 5 | ····· |
| What if one gift thou lackest? (the ultimate human problem never solving,) | 19 | ·····/˘·/˘˘/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| The gift of perfect women fit for thee--what if that gift of gifts | 16 | ···˘//˘········· |
| thou lackest? | 3 | ·/˘ |
| The towering feminine of thee? the beauty, health, completion, fit for thee? | 19 | ·/˘˘/˘˘···/˘·˘/˘··· |
| The mothers fit for thee? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.