Analysis of Think Of The Soul

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



THINK of the Soul;
   I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions to your Soul
         somehow to live in other spheres;
   I do not know how, but I know it is so.

Think of loving and being loved;
   I swear to you, whoever you are, you can interfuse yourself with such
         things that everybody that sees you shall look longingly upon
         you.

Think of the past;
   I warn you that in a little while others will find their past in you
         and your times.

The race is never separated--nor man nor woman escapes;
   All is inextricable--things, spirits, Nature, nations, you too--from
         precedents you come.

Recall the ever-welcome defiers, (The mothers precede them;)       10
   Recall the sages, poets, saviors, inventors, lawgivers, of the earth;
   Recall Christ, brother of rejected persons--brother of slaves,
         felons, idiots, and of insane and diseas'd persons.

Think of the time when you were not yet born;
   Think of times you stood at the side of the dying;
   Think of the time when your own body will be dying.

Think of spiritual results,
   Sure as the earth swims through the heavens, does every one of its
         objects pass into spiritual results.

Think of manhood, and you to be a man;
   Do you count manhood, and the sweet of manhood, nothing?

Think of womanhood, and you to be a woman;                         20
   The creation is womanhood;
   Have I not said that womanhood involves all?
   Have I not told how the universe has nothing better than the best
         womanhood?


Scheme AAXX XXXB XBX XCC XXXX XDD EXE XD XFXXF
Poetic Form
Metre 1101 1111110111010111 1110101 11111111111 11100101 1111010111110111 111001111110001 1 1101 11110010110111101 011 011101001111001 11010001101010111 10011 1010101010011 101010100101101 11101010101011 10100010100110 1101110111 111111011010 1101111101110 11100001 1101110101100111 10101100001 111011101 11110011110 11100111010 0010110 1111110011 1111101011010101 10
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,544
Words 253
Sentences 11
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, 2, 5
Lines Amount 31
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 121
Words per stanza (avg) 31
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:16 min read
102

Walt Whitman

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

All Walt Whitman poems | Walt Whitman Books

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