Analysis of There Was A Child Went Forth
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
THERE was a child went forth every day;
And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became;
And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of
the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years.
The early lilacs became part of this child,
And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white and red
clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird,
And the Third-month lambs, and the sow's pink-faint litter, and the
mare's foal, and the cow's calf,
And the noisy brood of the barn-yard, or by the mire of the pond-
side,
And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there--and the
beautiful curious liquid,
And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads--all became part
of him.
The field-sprouts of Fourth-month and Fifth-month became part of
him; 10
Winter-grain sprouts, and those of the light-yellow corn, and the
esculent roots of the garden,
And the apple-trees cover'd with blossoms, and the fruit afterward,
and wood-berries, and the commonest weeds by the road;
And the old drunkard staggering home from the out-house of the
tavern, whence he had lately risen,
And the school-mistress that pass'd on her way to the school,
And the friendly boys that pass'd--and the quarrelsome boys,
And the tidy and fresh-cheek'd girls--and the barefoot negro boy and
girl,
And all the changes of city and country, wherever he went.
His own parents,
He that had father'd him, and she that had conceiv'd him in her womb,
and birth'd him,
They gave this child more of themselves than that; 20
They gave him afterward every day--they became part of him.
The mother at home, quietly placing the dishes on the supper-table;
The mother with mild words--clean her cap and gown, a wholesome odor
falling off her person and clothes as she walks by;
The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, anger'd, unjust;
The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty lure,
The family usages, the language, the company, the furniture--the
yearning and swelling heart,
Affection that will not be gainsay'd--the sense of what is real--the
thought if, after all, it should prove unreal,
The doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time--the curious
whether and how,
Whether that which appears so is so, or is it all flashes and specks?
Men and women crowding fast in the streets--if they are not flashes
and specks, what are they? 30
The streets themselves, and the façades of houses, and goods in the
windows,
Vehicles, teams, the heavy-plank'd wharves--the huge crossing at the
ferries,
The village on the highland, seen from afar at sunset--the river
between,
Shadows, aureola and mist, the light falling on roofs and gables of
white or brown, three miles off,
The schooner near by, sleepily dropping down the tide--the little
boat slack-tow'd astern,
The hurrying tumbling waves, quick-broken crests, slapping,
The strata of color'd clouds, the long bar of maroon-tint, away
solitary by itself--the spread of purity it lies motionless in,
The horizon's edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance of salt marsh
and shore mud;
These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now
goes, and will always go forth every day.
Scheme | AXBX XXCDXXXDEFG BGDHCXDHXXXXX XXGXG IJXXXDFDXXKXXADXDXJXBXIHXAXXEKA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111001 001101101110101 011001111101101011 01111011101011 0101011111 01010110100101 1000110101 00111001111000 110011 0010110111101101 1 001010011100001100 10010010 001011110111011 11 0111110110111 1 10110110110100 01011010 0010110110001100 01100011101 001101001101110 101111010 0011011101101 0010111001001 001001110011010 1 0101011001001011 1110 1111010111011001 011 1111110111 1111001001101111 0101110010010101010 0101111010101010 101010011111 010110101011001 01011101100101 0100100010010001000 100101 010111110111110 1110111101 011110011110100 1001 10110111111111001 1010101001111110 01111 010100111100100 10 100101011011010 10 0101010110111010 01 11010110110101 111111 0101110010101010 1111 01001001110110 0101101011101101 100101011100111000 0010101011010111 011 10111111111001011 1011111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 3,569 |
Words | 535 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 11, 13, 5, 31 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 495 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 128 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 2:45 min read
- 480 Views
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"There Was A Child Went Forth" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38187/there-was-a-child-went-forth>.
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