You Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me
You lingering sparse leaves of me on winter-nearing boughs,And I some well-shorn tree of field or orchard-row;You tokens diminute and lorn--(not now the flush of May, or Julyclover-bloom--no grain of August now;)You pallid banner-staves--you pennants valueless--you overstay’d of time,Yet my soul-dearest leaves confirming all the rest,The faithfulest--hardiest--last.
Words in this poem
- sparse v. t.
- To scatter; to disperse. [L. sparsus, p.p. of spargere to scatter.]
- diminute a.
- Small; diminished; diminutive. Jer. Taylor.
- lorn a.
- Lost; undone; ruined. [Strong p. p. of Lose. See Lose, Forlorn.]
- valueless a.
- Being of no value; having no worth.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
You Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me 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 Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/you-lingering-sparse-leaves-of-me.html, id L04112.
Form and metre
You Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me is 7 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The lines average 12.9 syllables.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You lingering sparse leaves of me on winter-nearing boughs, | 14 | ·/˘˘·····/˘/˘· |
| And I some well-shorn tree of field or orchard-row; | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| You tokens diminute and lorn--(not now the flush of May, or July | 17 | ·/˘/˘˘··········/ |
| clover-bloom--no grain of August now;) | 9 | /˘····/˘· |
| You pallid banner-staves--you pennants valueless--you overstay’d of time, | 18 | ·/˘/˘··/˘/˘˘··˘/·· |
| Yet my soul-dearest leaves confirming all the rest, | 12 | ···/˘·˘/˘··· |
| The faithfulest--hardiest--last. | 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.