Analysis of Great Are The Myths
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
GREAT are the myths--I too delight in them;
Great are Adam and Eve--I too look back and accept them;
Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets, women, sages,
inventors, rulers, warriors, and priests.
Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their follower;
Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you sail, I sail,
I weather it out with you, or sink with you.
Great is Youth--equally great is Old Age--great are the Day and
Night;
Great is Wealth--great is Poverty--great is Expression--great is
Silence.
Youth, large, lusty, loving--Youth, full of grace, force,
fascination!
Do you know that Old Age may come after you, with equal grace, force,
fascination? 10
Day, full-blown and splendid--Day of the immense sun, action,
ambition, laughter,
The Night follows close, with millions of suns, and sleep, and
restoring darkness.
Wealth, with the flush hand, fine clothes, hospitality;
But then the Soul's wealth, which is candor, knowledge, pride,
enfolding love;
(Who goes for men and women showing Poverty richer than wealth?)
Expression of speech! in what is written or said, forget not that
Silence is also expressive,
That anguish as hot as the hottest, and contempt as cold as the
coldest, may be without words.
Great is the Earth, and the way it became what it is;
Do you imagine it has stopt at this? the increase abandon'd?
Understand then that it goes as far onward from this, as this is from
the times when it lay in covering waters and gases, before man
had appear'd. 20
Great is the quality of Truth in man;
The quality of truth in man supports itself through all changes,
It is inevitably in the man--he and it are in love, and never leave
each other.
The truth in man is no dictum, it is vital as eyesight;
If there be any Soul, there is truth--if there be man or woman there
is truth--if there be physical or moral, there is truth;
If there be equilibrium or volition, there is truth--if there be
things at all upon the earth, there is truth.
O truth of the earth! I am determin'd to press my way toward you;
Sound your voice! I scale mountains, or dive in the sea after you.
Great is Language--it is the mightiest of the sciences,
It is the fulness, color, form, diversity of the earth, and of men
and women, and of all qualities and processes; 30
It is greater than wealth--it is greater than buildings, ships,
religions, paintings, music.
Great is the English speech--what speech is so great as the English?
Great is the English brood--what brood has so vast a destiny as the
English?
It is the mother of the brood that must rule the earth with the new
rule;
The new rule shall rule as the Soul rules, and as the love, justice,
equality in the Soul rule.
Great is Law--great are the few old land-marks of the law,
They are the same in all times, and shall not be disturb'd.
Great is Justice!
Justice is not settled by legislators and laws--it is in the Soul;
It cannot be varied by statutes, any more than love, pride, the
attraction of gravity, can; 40
It is immutable--it does not depend on majorities--majorities or what
not, come at last before the same passionless and exact
tribunal.
For justice are the grand natural lawyers, and perfect judges--is it
in their Souls;
It is well assorted--they have not studied for nothing--the great
includes the less;
They rule on the highest grounds--they oversee all eras, states,
administrations.
The perfect judge fears nothing--he could go front to front before
God;
Before the perfect judge all shall stand back--life and death shall
stand back--heaven and hell shall stand back.
Great is Life, real and mystical, wherever and whoever;
Great is Death--sure as life holds all parts together, Death holds
all parts together.
Has Life much purport?--Ah, Death has the greatest purport.
Scheme | AABXCXD EFBX GHGH HCEI JXXX XXKX BEXLX LMXC FXNJN DD MXMXX OKODPIP XX IXKLXXX XXXXXX XXXX CXC X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110101 11100111110011 10100101001101010 0101010001 11100110100111100 111011111111 11011111111 111100111111010 1 111111001101011 10 11101011111 010 1111111110111011 010 11101011001110 01010 0110111011010 01010 11011110100 110111110101 11 1111010101001011 0101101110110111 10110010 1101110100011110 1011011 1101001101111 1101011111001010 0111111110111111 01111010010010011 101 1101001101 0100110101011110 11010000011011010101 110 01011110111011 11110111111111101 11111100110111 11101001010111111 1110101111 11101110101111011 111111011001101 111011010010100 11011010100101011 0100111000100 11101111101101 0101010 110101111111010 11010111111010010 10 1101010111101101 1 011111011010110 01000011 1111101111101 1101011011101 1110 10111011000111001 1101101101011110 01011001 1101001110110100010011 111101011001 010 110101100100011011 011 1110101111011001 0101 11101011101101 0010 001111011111101 1 01001111111011 111001111 111101000100010 11111111101011 11010 11111110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 4,245 |
Words | 656 |
Sentences | 33 |
Stanzas | 18 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 5, 2, 5, 7, 2, 7, 6, 4, 3, 1 |
Lines Amount | 78 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 162 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 03, 2023
- 3:18 min read
- 257 Views
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