Analysis of Pensive On Her Dead Gazing, I Heard The Mother Of All
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
PENSIVE, on her dead gazing, I heard the Mother of All,
Desperate, on the torn bodies, on the forms covering the battle-
fields gazing;
(As the last gun ceased--but the scent of the powder-smoke linger'd;)
As she call'd to her earth with mournful voice while she stalk'd:
Absorb them well, O my earth, she cried--I charge you, lose not my
sons! lose not an atom;
And you streams, absorb them well, taking their dear blood;
And you local spots, and you airs that swim above lightly,
And all you essences of soil and growth--and you, my rivers' depths;
And you, mountain sides--and the woods where my dear children's
blood, trickling, redden'd;
And you trees, down in your roots, to bequeath to all future
trees, 10
My dead absorb--my young men's beautiful bodies absorb--and their
precious, precious, precious blood;
Which holding in trust for me, faithfully back again give me, many a
year hence,
In unseen essence and odor of surface and grass, centuries hence;
In blowing airs from the fields, back again give me my darlings--give
my immortal heroes;
Exhale me them centuries hence--breathe me their breath--let not an
atom be lost;
O years and graves! O air and soil! O my dead, an aroma sweet!
Exhale them perennial, sweet death, years, centuries hence.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKDLMNHOPPQRSTUP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10101101101011 1010110101100010 110 101111011010110 1111011101111 011111111111111 111110 011011110111 01101011110110 01111101011101 0110100111110 1101 01110111011110 1 1101111100100101 1010101 110011110010111100 11 00110010110011001 0101101101111101 101010 011110011111111 1011 1101110111110101 01101001111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,418 |
Words | 217 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 25 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 969 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 268 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 133 Views
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"Pensive On Her Dead Gazing, I Heard The Mother Of All" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38110/pensive-on-her-dead-gazing%2C-i-heard-the-mother-of-all>.
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