Analysis of Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling
Walt Whitman 1819 (West Hills) – 1892 (Camden)
THOU orb aloft full-dazzling! thou hot October noon!
Flooding with sheeny light the gray beach sand,
The sibilant near sea with vistas far and foam,
And tawny streaks and shades and spreading blue;
O sun of noon rufulgent! my special word to thee.
Hear me illustrious!
Thy lover me, for always I have loved thee,
Even as basking babe, then happy boy alone by some wood edge, thy
touching-distant beams enough,
Or man matured, or young or old, as now to thee I launch my
invocation.
(Thou canst not with thy dumbness me deceive, 10
I know before the fitting man all Nature yields,
Though answering not in words, the skies, trees, hear his voice--and
thou O sun,
As for thy throes, thy perturbations, sudden breaks and shafts of
flame gigantic,
I understand them, I know those flames, those perturbations well.)
Thou that with fructifying heat and light,
O'er myriad farms, o'er lands and waters North and South,
O'er Mississippi's endless course, o'er Texas' grassy plains,
Kanada's woods,
O'er all the globe that turns its face to thee shining in space,
Thou that impartially infoldest all, not only continents, seas,
Thou that to grapes and weeds and little wild flowers givest so
liberally, 20
Shed, shed thyself on mine and me, with but a fleeting ray out of thy
million millions,
Strike through these chants.
Nor only launch thy subtle dazzle and thy strength for these,
Prepare the later afternoon of me myself--prepare my lengthening
shadows,
Prepare my starry nights.
Scheme | XXXXA XABXBC XXXCXXX XXXXXDXABXX DXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011100110101 101110111 0111110101 0101010101 11111110111 110100 1101111111 10110111010111111 1010101 110111111111111 010 111111101 110101011101 11001010111110 111 11111010101011 1010 1011111110101 1111101 101001101010101 100101011010101 11 101011111111001 110100111101001 11110101011011 1000 1111101110101111 1010 1111 11011101001111 0101001111011100 1 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,665 |
Words | 253 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 6, 7, 11, 4 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 233 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 22, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 107 Views
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"Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38196/thou-orb-aloft-full-dazzling>.
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