You Felons on Trial in Courts
You felons on trial in courts,You convicts in prison-cells, you sentenced assassins chain’d andhandcuff’d with iron,Who am I too that I am not on trial or in prison?Me ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chain’d withiron, or my ankles with iron?
You prostitutes flaunting over the trottoirs or obscene in your rooms,Who am I that I should call you more obscene than myself?
O culpable! I acknowledge--I expose!(O admirers, praise not me--compliment not me--you make me wince,I see what you do not--I know what you do not.)
Inside these breast-bones I lie smutch’d and choked,Beneath this face that appears so impassive hell’s tides continually run,Lusts and wickedness are acceptable to me,I walk with delinquents with passionate love,I feel I am of them--I belong to those convicts and prostitutes myself,And henceforth I will not deny them--for how can I deny myself?
Words in this poem
- ruthless a.
- Having no ruth; cruel; pitiless.
- impassive a.
- Not susceptible of pain or suffering; apathetic; impassible; unmoved.
- henceforth adv.
- From this time forward; henceforward.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
You Felons on Trial in Courts 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, You Felons on Trial in Courts, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/you-felons-on-trial-in-courts.html, id L03996.
Form and metre
You Felons on Trial in Courts is 17 lines in 4 stanzas. 70% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.3 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 courts · and · ironA · prison · with · ironA
- 4 ----AA choked · run · me · love · myselfA · myselfA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You felons on trial in courts, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| You convicts in prison-cells, you sentenced assassins chain’d and | 15 | ·/˘·/˘··/˘˘/˘·· |
| handcuff’d with iron, | 5 | /··/˘ |
| Who am I too that I am not on trial or in prison? | 15 | ·········/˘··/˘ |
| Me ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chain’d with | 16 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘······· |
| iron, or my ankles with iron? | 9 | /˘··/˘·/˘ |
| You prostitutes flaunting over the trottoirs or obscene in your rooms, | 17 | ·/˘·/˘······˘/··· |
| Who am I that I should call you more obscene than myself? | 14 | ·········˘/··/ |
| O culpable! I acknowledge--I expose! | 11 | ·/˘˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| (O admirers, praise not me--compliment not me--you make me wince, | 16 | ·˘/˘···/˘˘······ |
| I see what you do not--I know what you do not.) | 12 | ············ |
| Inside these breast-bones I lie smutch’d and choked, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Beneath this face that appears so impassive hell’s tides continually run, | 19 | ·····˘/·˘/˘··˘/˘˘˘· |
| Lusts and wickedness are acceptable to me, | 12 | ··/˘˘·˘/˘˘·· |
| I walk with delinquents with passionate love, | 11 | ···˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| I feel I am of them--I belong to those convicts and prostitutes myself, | 19 | ·······˘/··/˘·/˘··/ |
| And henceforth I will not deny them--for how can I deny myself? | 17 | ·//···˘/·····˘/·/ |
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.