Analysis of One Song, America, Before I Go

Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)




   ONE song, America, before I go,
   I'd sing, o'er all the rest, with trumpet sound,
   For thee--the Future.

I'd sow a seed for thee of endless Nationality;
   I'd fashion thy Ensemble, including Body and Soul;
   I'd show, away ahead, thy real Union, and how it may be accomplish'd.

(The paths to the House I seek to make,
   But leave to those to come, the House itself.)

Belief I sing--and Preparation;
   As Life and Nature are not great with reference to the Present
         only,                                                        10
   But greater still from what is yet to come,
   Out of that formula for Thee I sing.


Scheme XXX AXX XX XXAXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1101000111 11101011101 11010 1101111100100 11010100101001 110101111001111010 011011111 1111110101 01110010 1101011111001010 10 1101111111 1111001111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 639
Words 104
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 2, 5
Lines Amount 13
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 103
Words per stanza (avg) 39
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

33 sec read
254

Walt Whitman

Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. more…

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