As I Ebb'd With The Ocean Of Life Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFEGEHI CGJHEKGECG EEKLELE MNOPEEEGJQ RSEKT UDOT KEL DVGKE LKD LWDK XLKUU TKYGGEDGLZA2B2DC2LGE UDE| A | |
| As I ebb'd with the ocean of life | B |
| As I wended the shores I know | C |
| As I walk'd where the ripples continually wash you Paumanok | D |
| Where they rustle up hoarse and sibilant | E |
| Where the fierce old mother endlessly cries for her castaways | F |
| I musing late in the autumn day gazing off southward | E |
| Held by this electric self out of the pride of which I utter poems | G |
| Was seiz'd by the spirit that trails in the lines underfoot | E |
| The rim the sediment that stands for all the water and all the | H |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp land of the globe | I |
| - | |
| Fascinated my eyes reverting from the south dropt to follow | C |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp those slender windrows | G |
| Chaff straw splinters of wood weeds and the sea gluten | J |
| Scum scales from shining rocks leaves of salt lettuce left by the | H |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp tide | E |
| Miles walking the sound of breaking waves the other side of me | K |
| Paumanok there and then as I thought the old thought of likenesses | G |
| These you presented to me you fish shaped island | E |
| As I wended the shores I know | C |
| As I walk'd with that electric self seeking types | G |
| - | |
| - | |
| As I wend to the shores I know not | E |
| As I list to the dirge the voices of men and women wreck'd | E |
| As I inhale the impalpable breezes that set in upon me | K |
| As the ocean so mysterious rolls toward me closer and closer | L |
| I too but signify at the utmost a little wash'd up drift | E |
| A few sands and dead leaves to gather | L |
| Gather and merge myself as part of the sands and drift | E |
| - | |
| O baffled balk'd bent to the very earth | M |
| Oppress'd with myself that I have dared to open my mouth | N |
| Aware now that amid all that blab whose echoes recoil upon me I | O |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp have not once had the least idea who or what I am | P |
| But that before all my arrogant poems the real Me stands yet | E |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp untouch'd untold altogether unreach'd | E |
| Withdrawn far mocking me with mock congratulatory signs and | E |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp bows | G |
| With peals of distant ironical laughter at every word I have written | J |
| Pointing in silence to these songs and then to the sand beneath | Q |
| - | |
| I perceive I have not really understood any thing not a single | R |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp object and that no man ever can | S |
| Nature here in sight of the sea taking advantage of me to dart | E |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp upon me and sting me | K |
| Because I have dared to open my mouth to sing at all | T |
| - | |
| - | |
| You oceans both I close with you | U |
| We murmur alike reproachfully rolling sands and drift knowing | D |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp not why | O |
| These little shreds indeed standing for you and me and all | T |
| - | |
| You friable shore with trails of debris | K |
| You fish shaped island I take what is underfoot | E |
| What is yours is mine my father | L |
| - | |
| I too Paumanok | D |
| I too have bubbled up floated the measureless float and been | V |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp wash'd on your shores | G |
| I too am but a trail of drift and debris | K |
| I too leave little wrecks upon you you fish shaped island | E |
| - | |
| I throw myself upon your breast my father | L |
| I cling to you so that you cannot unloose me | K |
| I hold you so firm till you answer me something | D |
| - | |
| Kiss me my father | L |
| Touch me with your lips as I touch those I love | W |
| Breathe to me while I hold you close the secret of the murmuring | D |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp I envy | K |
| - | |
| - | |
| Ebb ocean of life the flow will return | X |
| Cease not your moaning you fierce old mother | L |
| Endlessly cry for your castaways but fear not deny not me | K |
| Rustle not up so hoarse and angry against my feet as I touch you | U |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp or gather from you | U |
| - | |
| I mean tenderly by you and all | T |
| I gather for myself and for this phantom looking down where we | K |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp lead and following me and mine | Y |
| Me and mine loose windrows little corpses | G |
| Froth snowy white and bubbles | G |
| See from my dead lips the ooze exuding at last | E |
| See the prismatic colors glistening and rolling | D |
| Tufts of straw sands fragments | G |
| Buoy'd hither from many moods one contradicting another | L |
| From the storm the long calm the darkness the swell | Z |
| Musing pondering a breath a briny tear a dab of liquid or soil | A2 |
| Up just as much out of fathomless workings fermented and thrown | B2 |
| A limp blossom or two torn just as much over waves floating | D |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp drifted at random | C2 |
| Just as much for us that sobbing dirge of Nature | L |
| Just as much whence we come that blare of the cloud trumpets | G |
| We capricious brought hither we know not whence spread out | E |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp before you | U |
| You up there walking or sitting | D |
| Whoever you are we too lie in drifts at your feet | E |
Walt Whitman
(1)
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