Analysis of Who Learns My Lesson Complete?

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




   WHO learns my lesson complete?
   Boss, journeyman, apprentice--churchman and atheist,
   The stupid and the wise thinker--parents and offspring--merchant,
         clerk, porter and customer,
   Editor, author, artist, and schoolboy--Draw nigh and commence;
   It is no lesson--it lets down the bars to a good lesson,
   And that to another, and every one to another still.

The great laws take and effuse without argument;
   I am of the same style, for I am their friend,
   I love them quits and quits--I do not halt, and make salaams.

I lie abstracted, and hear beautiful tales of things, and the reasons
         of things;                                                   10
   They are so beautiful, I nudge myself to listen.

I cannot say to any person what I hear--I cannot say it to myself--it
         is very wonderful.

It is no small matter, this round and delicious globe, moving so
         exactly in its orbit forever and ever, without one jolt, or the
         untruth of a single second;
   I do not think it was made in six days, nor in ten thousand years,
         nor ten billions of years,
   Nor plann'd and built one thing after another, as an architect plans
         and builds a house.

I do not think seventy years is the time of a man or woman,
   Nor that seventy millions of years is the time of a man or woman,
   Nor that years will ever stop the existence of me, or any one else.

Is it wonderful that I should be immortal? as every one is immortal;
   I know it is wonderful, but my eyesight is equally wonderful, and how
         I was conceived in my mother's womb is equally wonderful;    20
   And pass'd from a babe, in the creeping trance of a couple of summers
         and winters, to articulate and walk--All this is equally
         wonderful.

And that my Soul embraces you this hour, and we affect each other
         without ever seeing each other, and never perhaps to see each
         other, is every bit as wonderful.

And that I can think such thoughts as these, is just as wonderful;
   And that I can remind you, and you think them, and know them to be
         true, is just as wonderful.

And that the moon spins round the earth, and on with the earth, is
         equally wonderful,
   And that they balance themselves with the sun and stars, is equally
         wonderful.


Scheme xxabcdx axc xxd xe xxxffxx ddx exexgE bxe ege xegE
Poetic Form
Metre 1111001 110010100100 01000110100110 1100100 10010100111001 111101110110110 0110100100110101 01110101100 11101111111 1111011111011 1110011001110010 11 111100111110 11011101011111011111 110100 1111101100101101 0100110010010011110 01101010 1111111011101101 111011 1101111001011101 0101 11111001101101110 111001011101101110 111110100101111011 111001111010110011010 1111100111110010001 1101011011100100 01101001011010110 010101001111100 100 011101011100101110 01101011001001111 10110011100 011111111111100 0111011011101111 1111100 01011101011011 100100 0111001101011100 100
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 2,325
Words 386
Sentences 13
Stanzas 10
Stanza Lengths 7, 3, 3, 2, 7, 3, 6, 3, 3, 4
Lines Amount 41
Letters per line (avg) 40
Words per line (avg) 11
Letters per stanza (avg) 163
Words per stanza (avg) 44
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

1:56 min read
211

Walt Whitman

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

All Walt Whitman poems | Walt Whitman Books

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