With Husky-Haughty Lips, o Sea!
With husky-haughty lips, O sea!Where day and night I wend thy surf-beat shore,Imaging to my sense thy varied strange suggestions,(I see and plainly list thy talk and conference here,)Thy troops of white-maned racers racing to the goal,Thy ample, smiling face, dash’d with the sparkling dimples of the sun,Thy brooding scowl and murk--thy unloos’d hurricanes,Thy unsubduedness, caprices, wilfulness;Great as thou art above the rest, thy many tears--a lack from alleternity in thy content,(Naught but the greatest struggles, wrongs, defeats, could make theegreatest--no less could make thee,)Thy lonely state--something thou ever seek’st and seek’st, yetnever gain’st,Surely some right withheld--some voice, in huge monotonous rage, offreedom-lover pent,Some vast heart, like a planet’s, chain’d and chafing in those breakers,By lengthen’d swell, and spasm, and panting breath,And rhythmic rasping of thy sands and waves,And serpent hiss, and savage peals of laughter,And undertones of distant lion roar,(Sounding, appealing to the sky’s deaf ear--but now, rapport for once,A phantom in the night thy confidant for once,)The first and last confession of the globe,Outsurging, muttering from thy soul’s abysms,The tale of cosmic elemental passion,Thou tellest to a kindred soul.
Words in this poem
- husky a.
- Abounding with husks; consisting of husks. [From Husk, n.]
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
- wend n.
- A large extent of ground; a perambulation; a circuit.
- scowl v. i.
- To wrinkle the brows, as in frowning or displeasure; to put on a frowning look; to look sour, sullen, severe, or angry. [Akin to Dan. skule; cf. Icel. skolla to skulk, LG. schulen to hide one's self, D. schuilen, G. schielen to squint, Dan. skele, Sw. skela, AS. sceolh squinting. ]
- murk n.
- Darkness; mirk.
- pent p. p.
- Penned or shut up; confined; -- often with up. [From Pen, v. t.]
- rhythmic a.
- Pertaining to, or of the nature of, rhythm DAy and night I worked my rhythmic thought. Mrs. Browning. [Gr. rhythmicus, F. rhythmique.]
- appealing a.
- That appeals; imploring.
- rapport n.
- Relation; proportion; conformity; correspondence; accord. [F., fr. rapporter to bring again or back, to refer; pref. re- re- + apporter to bring, L. apporter to bring, L. apportare. Cf. Report.]
- confidant n.
- One to whom secrets, especially those relating to affairs of love, are confided or intrusted; a confidential or bosom friend. [F. confident, confidente, formerly also spelt confidant, confidante. See Confide, and cf. Confident.]
- cosmic a.
- Pertaining to the universe, and having special reference to universal law or order, or to the one grand harmonious system of things; hence; harmonious; orderly. [Gr. kosmiko`s of the world, fr. ko`smos: cf. F. cosmique. See Cosmos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
With Husky-Haughty Lips, o Sea! 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 Husky-Haughty Lips, o Sea!, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/with-husky-haughty-lips-o-sea.html, id L04090.
Form and metre
With Husky-Haughty Lips, o Sea! is 27 lines in a single stanza. 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.2 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% 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 ABC-D-C--EAA---E----BFF---D seaA · shoreB · suggestionsC · here · goalD · sun · hurricanesC · wilfulness · all · contentE · theeA · theeA · yet · gain'st · of · pentE · breakers · breath · waves · laughter · roarB · onceF · onceF · globe · abysms · passion · soulD
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 husky-haughty lips, O sea! | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Where day and night I wend thy surf-beat shore, | 10 | ·········· |
| Imaging to my sense thy varied strange suggestions, | 13 | /˘˘····/˘·˘/˘ |
| (I see and plainly list thy talk and conference here,) | 13 | ···/˘····/˘˘· |
| Thy troops of white-maned racers racing to the goal, | 12 | ·····/˘/˘··· |
| Thy ample, smiling face, dash’d with the sparkling dimples of the sun, | 16 | ·/˘/˘····/˘/˘··· |
| Thy brooding scowl and murk--thy unloos’d hurricanes, | 12 | ·/˘······/˘· |
| Thy unsubduedness, caprices, wilfulness; | 11 | ·····˘/˘··· |
| Great as thou art above the rest, thy many tears--a lack from all | 16 | ·········/˘····· |
| eternity in thy content, | 8 | ˘/˘˘··/˘ |
| (Naught but the greatest struggles, wrongs, defeats, could make thee | 13 | ···/˘/˘·˘/··· |
| greatest--no less could make thee,) | 7 | /˘····· |
| Thy lonely state--something thou ever seek’st and seek’st, yet | 13 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘···· |
| never gain’st, | 3 | /˘· |
| Surely some right withheld--some voice, in huge monotonous rage, of | 16 | /˘··˘/····˘/˘˘·· |
| freedom-lover pent, | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| Some vast heart, like a planet’s, chain’d and chafing in those breakers, | 15 | ·····/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| By lengthen’d swell, and spasm, and panting breath, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| And rhythmic rasping of thy sands and waves, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And serpent hiss, and savage peals of laughter, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| And undertones of distant lion roar, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| (Sounding, appealing to the sky’s deaf ear--but now, rapport for once, | 16 | /˘˘/˘·······˘/·· |
| A phantom in the night thy confidant for once,) | 12 | ·/˘····/˘··· |
| The first and last confession of the globe, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Outsurging, muttering from thy soul’s abysms, | 11 | ···/˘˘····· |
| The tale of cosmic elemental passion, | 11 | ···/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Thou tellest to a kindred soul. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
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.