Analysis of Had I the Choice
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
Had I the choice to tally greatest bards,
To limn their portraits, stately, beautiful, and emulate at will,
Homer with all his wars and warriors--Hector, Achilles, Ajax,
Or Shakespeare's woe-entangled Hamlet, Lear, Othello--Tennyson's fair ladies,
Meter or wit the best, or choice conceit to weild in perfect rhyme, delight of singers;
These, these, O sea, all these I'd gladly barter,
Would you the undulation of one wave, its trick to me transfer,
Or breathe one breath of yours upon my verse,
And leave its odor there.
Scheme | ABAAACCAD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110101 111101010001011 1011110100100101 1110101010101110 101101110111001101110 11111111010 1101111111101 1111110111 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 529 |
Words | 88 |
Sentences | 2 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 9 |
Lines Amount | 9 |
Letters per line (avg) | 45 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 406 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 86 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 27 sec read
- 439 Views
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