Analysis of Unfolded Out Of The Folds

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




   UNFOLDED out of the folds of the woman, man comes unfolded, and is
         always to come unfolded;
   Unfolded only out of the superbest woman of the earth, is to come the
         superbest man of the earth;
   Unfolded out of the friendliest woman, is to come the friendliest
         man;
   Unfolded only out of the perfect body of a woman, can a man be form'd
         of perfect body;
   Unfolded only out of the inimitable poem of the woman, can come the
         poems of man--(only thence have my poems come;)
   Unfolded out of the strong and arrogant woman I love, only thence can
         appear the strong and arrogant man I love;
   Unfolded by brawny embraces from the well-muscled woman I love, only
         thence come the brawny embraces of the man;
   Unfolded out of the folds of the woman's brain, come all the folds of
         the man's brain, duly obedient;
   Unfolded out of the justice of the woman, all justice is unfolded;
   Unfolded out of the sympathy of the woman is all sympathy:         10
   A man is a great thing upon the earth, and through eternity--but
         every jot of the greatness of man is unfolded out of woman,
   First the man is shaped in the woman, he can then be shaped in
         himself.


Scheme ABCDEFGHCIFJHFJKBHLMNO
Poetic Form
Metre 010110110101101001 111010 010101101101011110 11101 010110100101110100 1 010101100110101010111 10110 0101011001000101010110 101110111101 0101101010010111011 01010100111 01011001010110101110 11010010101 01011011010111011 011100100 0101101010101101010 010110100101011100 01101101010101001 100110101110101110 101110010111110 01
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,238
Words 212
Sentences 2
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 22
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 40
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 874
Words per stanza (avg) 217
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 21, 2023

1:04 min read
99

Walt Whitman

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

All Walt Whitman poems | Walt Whitman Books

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