Passage To India Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDBEFB BGBBHIB BJ BKJLMNOPOBBLBQ BBRESTU QVWXF BYBBZA2KBB2 C2XUQED2A2BBBEEEBEBE EUE2EBEEA2EB D2F2D2 BBG2H2 EEQBEEI2ETJ2BB EEEEK2EOE QL2EEEBM2 OEN2A2BEE BBB BRBBC2E EBBBBUEBBBEEWL2 QBEE2SSINGING my days | A |
Singing the great achievements of the present | B |
Singing the strong light works of engineers | C |
Our modern wonders the antique ponderous Seven outvied | B |
In the Old World the east the Suez canal | D |
The New by its mighty railroad spann'd | B |
The seas inlaid with eloquent gentle wires | E |
I sound to commence the cry with thee O soul | F |
The Past the Past the Past | B |
- | |
The Past the dark unfathom'd retrospect | B |
The teeming gulf the sleepers and the shadows | G |
The past the infinite greatness of the past | B |
For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past | B |
As a projectile form'd impell'd passing a certain line still | H |
keeps on | I |
So the present utterly form'd impell'd by the past | B |
- | |
- | |
Passage O soul to India | B |
Eclaircise the myths Asiatic the primitive fables | J |
- | |
Not you alone proud truths of the world | B |
Nor you alone ye facts of modern science | K |
But myths and fables of eld Asia's Africa's fables | J |
The far darting beams of the spirit the unloos'd dreams | L |
The deep diving bibles and legends | M |
The daring plots of the poets the elder religions | N |
O you temples fairer than lilies pour'd over by the rising sun | O |
O you fables spurning the known eluding the hold of the known | P |
mounting to heaven | O |
You lofty and dazzling towers pinnacled red as roses burnish'd | B |
with gold | B |
Towers of fables immortal fashion'd from mortal dreams | L |
You too I welcome and fully the same as the rest | B |
You too with joy I sing | Q |
- | |
- | |
Passage to India | B |
Lo soul seest thou not God's purpose from the first | B |
The earth to be spann'd connected by net work | R |
The people to become brothers and sisters | E |
The races neighbors to marry and be given in marriage | S |
The oceans to be cross'd the distant brought near | T |
The lands to be welded together | U |
- | |
A worship new I sing | Q |
You captains voyagers explorers yours | V |
You engineers you architects machinists your | W |
You not for trade or transportation only | X |
But in God's name and for thy sake O soul | F |
- | |
- | |
Passage to India | B |
Lo soul for thee of tableaus twain | Y |
I see in one the Suez canal initiated open'd | B |
I see the procession of steamships the Empress Eugenie's leading the | B |
van | Z |
I mark from on deck the strange landscape the pure sky the level | A2 |
sand in the distance | K |
I pass swiftly the picturesque groups the workmen gather'd | B |
The gigantic dredging machines | B2 |
- | |
In one again different yet thine all thine O soul the same | C2 |
I see over my own continent the Pacific Railroad surmounting every | X |
barrier | U |
I see continual trains of cars winding along the Platte carrying | Q |
freight and passengers | E |
I hear the locomotives rushing and roaring and the shrill steam | D2 |
whistle | A2 |
I hear the echoes reverberate through the grandest scenery in the | B |
world | B |
I cross the Laramie plains I note the rocks in grotesque shapes the | B |
buttes | E |
I see the plentiful larkspur and wild onions the barren colorless | E |
sage deserts | E |
I see in glimpses afar or towering immediately above me the great | B |
mountains I see the Wind River and the Wahsatch mountains | E |
I see the Monument mountain and the Eagle's Nest I pass the | B |
Promontory I ascend the Nevadas | E |
I scan the noble Elk mountain and wind around its base | E |
I see the Humboldt range I thread the valley and cross the river | U |
I see the clear waters of Lake Tahoe I see forests of majestic | E2 |
pines | E |
Or crossing the great desert the alkaline plains I behold | B |
enchanting mirages of waters and meadows | E |
Marking through these and after all in duplicate slender lines | E |
Bridging the three or four thousand miles of land travel | A2 |
Tying the Eastern to the Western sea | E |
The road between Europe and Asia | B |
- | |
Ah Genoese thy dream thy dream | D2 |
Centuries after thou art laid in thy grave | F2 |
The shore thou foundest verifies thy dream | D2 |
- | |
- | |
Passage to India | B |
Struggles of many a captain tales of many a sailor dead | B |
Over my mood stealing and spreading they come | G2 |
Like clouds and cloudlets in the unreach'd sky | H2 |
- | |
Along all history down the slopes | E |
As a rivulet running sinking now and now again to the surface | E |
rising | Q |
A ceaseless thought a varied train Lo soul to thee thy sight | B |
they rise | E |
The plans the voyages again the expeditions | E |
Again Vasco de Gama sails forth | I2 |
Again the knowledge gain'd the mariner's compass | E |
Lands found and nations born thou born America a hemisphere | T |
unborn | J2 |
For purpose vast man's long probation fill'd | B |
Thou rondure of the world at last accomplish'd | B |
- | |
- | |
O vast Rondure swimming in space | E |
Cover'd all over with visible power and beauty | E |
Alternate light and day and the teeming spiritual darkness | E |
Unspeakable high processions of sun and moon and countless stars | E |
above | K2 |
Below the manifold grass and waters animals mountains trees | E |
With inscrutable purpose some hidden prophetic intention | O |
Now first it seems my thought begins to span thee | E |
- | |
Down from the gardens of Asia descending radiating | Q |
Adam and Eve appear then their myriad progeny after them | L2 |
Wandering yearning curious with restless explorations | E |
With questionings baffled formless feverish with never happy | E |
hearts | E |
With that sad incessant refrain Wherefore unsatisfied Soul and | B |
Whither O mocking Life | M2 |
- | |
Ah who shall soothe these feverish children | O |
Who justify these restless explorations | E |
Who speak the secret of impassive Earth | N2 |
Who bind it to us What is this separate Nature so unnatural | A2 |
What is this Earth to our affections unloving earth without a | B |
throb to answer ours | E |
Cold earth the place of graves | E |
- | |
Yet soul be sure the first intent remains and shall be carried | B |
out | B |
Perhaps even now the time has arrived | B |
- | |
After the seas are all cross'd as they seem already cross'd | B |
After the great captains and engineers have accomplish'd their work | R |
After the noble inventors after the scientists the chemist the | B |
geologist ethnologist | B |
Finally shall come the Poet worthy that name | C2 |
The true Son of God shall come singing his songs | E |
- | |
Then not your deeds only O voyagers O scientists and inventors | E |
shall be justified | B |
All these hearts as of fretted children shall be sooth'd | B |
All affection shall be fully responded to the secret shall be told | B |
All these separations and gaps shall be taken up and hook'd and | B |
link'd together | U |
The whole Earth this cold impassive voiceless Earth shall be | E |
completely justified | B |
Trinitas divine shall be gloriously accomplish'd and compacted by the | B |
the Son of God the poet | B |
He shall indeed pass the straits and conquer the mountains | E |
He shall double the Cape of Good Hope to some purpose | E |
Nature and Man shall be disjoin'd and diffused no more | W |
The true Son of God shall absolutely fuse them | L2 |
- | |
- | |
Year at whose open'd wide flung door I sing | Q |
Year of the purpose accomplish'd | B |
Year of the marriage of continents climates and oceans | E |
No mere Doge of Venice now wedding the Adriatic | E2 |
I see O year in you the vast terraqueous globe gi | S |
Walt Whitman
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Passage To India poem by Walt Whitman
Akarsh: I need rest of the poem
Best Poems of Walt Whitman