Analysis of As I Walk These Broad, Majestic Days

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




   AS I walk these broad, majestic days of peace,
   (For the war, the struggle of blood finish'd, wherein, O terrific
         Ideal!
   Against vast odds, having gloriously won,
   Now thou stridest on--yet perhaps in time toward denser wars,
   Perhaps to engage in time in still more dreadful contests, dangers,
   Longer campaigns and crises, labors beyond all others;
   --As I walk solitary, unattended,
   Around me I hear that eclat of the world--politics, produce,
   The announcements of recognized things--science,
   The approved growth of cities, and the spread of inventions.       10

I see the ships, (they will last a few years,)
   The vast factories, with their foremen and workmen,
   And here the indorsement of all, and do not object to it.

But I too announce solid things;
   Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing--I watch
         them,
   Like a grand procession, to music of distant bugles, pouring,
         triumphantly moving--and grander heaving in sight;
   They stand for realities--all is as it should be.

Then my realities;
   What else is so real as mine?
   Libertad, and the divine average--Freedom to every slave on the face
         of the earth,                                                20
   The rapt promises and luminé of seers--the spiritual world--these
         centuries lasting songs,
   And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements
         of any.

For we support all, fuse all,
   After the rest is done and gone, we remain;
   There is no final reliance but upon us;
   Democracy rests finally upon us (I, my brethren, begin it,)
   And our visions sweep through eternity.


Scheme XXXXXAAXXXX XXB XXXXXC DXXXDXXC XXXBC
Poetic Form
Metre 11111010111 1010101110011010 01 01111010001 11111010101101 0110101011101010 10010101001110 1111000010 01111111011001 0010110110 00111100011010 1101111011 011001110010 0101110111011 11101101 1011010100111011 1 1010101101101010 0100100101001 11110111111 1110 1111111 100011001011001101 101 0110001110100011 100101 010100101100110010 110 1101111 10011101101 111100101011 010011000111110011 01010110100
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,664
Words 251
Sentences 8
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 11, 3, 6, 8, 5
Lines Amount 33
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 234
Words per stanza (avg) 60
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

1:15 min read
130

Walt Whitman

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

All Walt Whitman poems | Walt Whitman Books

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