Analysis of The Prairie-Grass Dividing

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




   THE prairie-grass dividing--its special odor breathing,
   I demand of it the spiritual corresponding,
   Demand the most copious and close companionship of men,
   Demand the blades to rise of words, acts, beings,
   Those of the open atmosphere, coarse, sunlit, fresh, nutritious,
   Those that go their own gait, erect, stepping with freedom and
         command--leading, not following,
   Those with a never-quell'd audacity--those with sweet and lusty
         flesh, clear of taint,
   Those that look carelessly in the faces of Presidents and Governors,
         as to say, Who are you?
   Those of earth-born passion, simple, never-constrain'd, never
         obedient,
   Those of inland America.                                           10


Scheme AABCDEAFGHIJKL
Poetic Form
Metre 01010101101010 1011101000010 01011000101011 01011111110 1101010111010 11111101101100 01101100 1101010100111010 1111 11110000101100100 111111 11111010100110 0100 1110100
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 749
Words 99
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 37
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 513
Words per stanza (avg) 139
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 22, 2023

30 sec read
168

Walt Whitman

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

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