Yonnondio
A song, a poem of itself--the word itself a dirge,Amid the wilds, the rocks, the storm and wintry night,To me such misty, strange tableaux the syllables calling up;Yonnondio--I see, far in the west or north, a limitless ravine, withplains and mountains dark,I see swarms of stalwart chieftains, medicine-men, and warriors,As flitting by like clouds of ghosts, they pass and are gone in thetwilight,(Race of the woods, the landscapes free, and the falls!No picture, poem, statement, passing them to the future:)Yonnondio! Yonnondio!--unlimn’d they disappear;To-day gives place, and fades--the cities, farms, factories fade;A muffled sonorous sound, a wailing word is borne through the airfor a moment,Then blank and gone and still, and utterly lost.
Words in this poem
- dirge n.
- A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in c]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
- limitless a.
- Having no limits; unbounded; boundless. Davies (Wit's Pilgr.).
- stalwart a.
- Brave; bold; strong; redoubted; daring; vehement; violent. [OE. stalworth, AS. stælwyrth serviceable, probably originally, good at stealing, or worth stealing or taking, and afterwards extended to other causes of estimat]
- flitting n.
- A flying with lightness and celerity; a fluttering.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Yonnondio 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, Yonnondio, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/yonnondio.html, id L04098.
Form and metre
Yonnondio is 15 lines in a single stanza. 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% 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--B-B-- dirge · nightA · up · with · dark · warriors · the · twilightA · falls · future · disappearB · fade · airB · moment · lost
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A song, a poem of itself--the word itself a dirge, | 14 | ···/˘·˘/··˘/·· |
| Amid the wilds, the rocks, the storm and wintry night, | 12 | ˘/·······/˘· |
| To me such misty, strange tableaux the syllables calling up; | 15 | ···/˘·˘/·/˘˘/˘· |
| Yonnondio--I see, far in the west or north, a limitless ravine, with | 18 | ············/˘˘˘/· |
| plains and mountains dark, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| I see swarms of stalwart chieftains, medicine-men, and warriors, | 16 | ····/˘/˘/˘˘··/˘˘ |
| As flitting by like clouds of ghosts, they pass and are gone in the | 15 | ·/˘············ |
| twilight, | 2 | /· |
| (Race of the woods, the landscapes free, and the falls! | 11 | ·····/····· |
| No picture, poem, statement, passing them to the future:) | 14 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘···/˘ |
| Yonnondio! Yonnondio!--unlimn’d they disappear; | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| To-day gives place, and fades--the cities, farms, factories fade; | 14 | ·······/˘·/˘˘· |
| A muffled sonorous sound, a wailing word is borne through the air | 16 | ·/˘/˘˘··/˘······ |
| for a moment, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Then blank and gone and still, and utterly lost. | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
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.