Song of Myself: List 2

by Walt Whitman
Included in the often-revised collection Leaves of Grass, "Song of Myself" expresses the 19th-century American poet's visions of common and universal humanity. The full text can be found here.

This list covers sections 24–52.

Here are links to our lists for the poem: List 1, List 2
40 words 17 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. primeval
    having existed from the beginning
    I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of democracy,
    By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.
  2. accretion
    an increase by natural growth or addition
    Through me many long dumb voices,
    Voices of the interminable generations of prisoners and slaves,
    Voices of the diseas’d and despairing and of thieves and dwarfs,
    Voices of cycles of preparation and accretion
  3. dote
    shower with love; show excessive affection for
    I dote on myself, there is that lot of me and all so luscious,
    Each moment and whatever happens thrills me with joy
  4. diaphanous
    so thin as to transmit light
    To behold the day-break!
    The little light fades the immense and diaphanous shadows
  5. encompass
    include in scope
    My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach,
    With the twirl of my tongue I encompass worlds and volumes of worlds.
  6. articulation
    the act of expressing in coherent verbal form
    Come now I will not be tantalized, you conceive too much of articulation,
    Do you not know O speech how the buds beneath you are folded?
  7. confound
    overthrow by argument, evidence, or proof
    Writing and talk do not prove me,
    I carry the plenum of proof and every thing else in my face,
    With the hush of my lips I wholly confound the skeptic.
  8. ardor
    feelings of great warmth and intensity
    The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies,
    It wrenches such ardors from me I did not know I possess’d them
  9. indolent
    disinclined to work or exertion
    It sails me, I dab with bare feet, they are lick’d by the indolent waves
  10. callous
    emotionally hardened
    Mine is no callous shell,
    I have instant conductors all over me whether I pass or stop,
    They seize every object and lead it harmlessly through me.
  11. marauder
    someone who attacks in search of loot
    The sentries desert every other part of me,
    They have left me helpless to a red marauder,
    They all come to the headland to witness and assist against me.
  12. recompense
    payment or reward, as for service rendered
    Parting track’d by arriving, perpetual payment of perpetual loan,
    Rich showering rain, and recompense richer afterward.
  13. prolific
    bearing in abundance especially offspring
    Sprouts take and accumulate, stand by the curb prolific and vital
  14. placid
    not easily irritated
    I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain’d
  15. evince
    give expression to
    So they show their relations to me and I accept them,
    They bring me tokens of myself, they evince them plainly in their possession.
  16. ballast
    something that steadies the mind or feelings
    My ties and ballasts leave me, my elbows rest in sea-gaps,
    I skirt sierras, my palms cover continents,
    I am afoot with my vision.
  17. earnest
    characterized by a firm, sincere belief in one's opinions
    Pleas’d with the tune of the choir of the whitewash’d church,
    Pleas’d with the earnest words of the sweating Methodist preacher
  18. fickle
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    Voyaging to every port to dicker and adventure,
    Hurrying with the modern crowd as eager and fickle as any
  19. bivouac
    live in or as if in a tent
    I am a free companion, I bivouac by invading watchfires
  20. livid
    discolored by coagulation of blood beneath the skin
    I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person,
    My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe.
  21. surly
    unfriendly and inclined toward anger or irritation
    His was the surly English pluck, and there is no tougher or truer, and never was, and never will be
  22. emanation
    something that is emitted or radiated
    Slow-stepping feet, common features, common modes and emanations,
    They descend in new forms from the tips of his fingers,
    They are wafted with the odor of his body or breath, they fly out of the glance of his eyes.
  23. huckster
    an aggressive and dishonest seller or advertiser
    Magnifying and applying come I,
    Outbidding at the start the old cautious hucksters,
    Taking myself the exact dimensions of Jehovah,
    Lithographing Kronos, Zeus his son, and Hercules his grandson,
    Buying drafts of Osiris, Isis, Belus, Brahma, Buddha
  24. prodigious
    great in size, force, extent, or degree
    The day getting ready for me when I shall do as much good as the best, and be as prodigious
  25. orotund
    full and rich, of sounds
    A call in the midst of the crowd,
    My own voice, orotund sweeping and final.
  26. flounder
    have difficulties; behave awkwardly
    What I do and say the same waits for them,
    Every thought that flounders in me the same flounders in them.
  27. centripetal
    tending to move toward an area in the middle
    One of that centripetal and centrifugal gang I turn and talk like man leaving charges before a journey.
  28. frivolous
    not serious in content, attitude, or behavior
    Down-hearted doubters dull and excluded,
    Frivolous, sullen, moping, angry, affected, dishearten’d, atheistical,
    I know every one of you, I know the sea of torment, doubt, despair and unbelief.
  29. lamentation
    the passionate activity of expressing grief
    All has been gentle with me, I keep no account with lamentation,
    (What have I to do with lamentation?)
  30. fetid
    offensively malodorous
    I waited unseen and always, and slept through the lethargic mist,
    And took my time, and took no hurt from the fetid carbon.
  31. torpid
    in a condition of biological rest or suspended animation
    Before I was born out of my mother generations guided me,
    My embryo has never been torpid, nothing could overlay it.
  32. robust
    sturdy and strong in form, constitution, or construction
    All forces have been steadily employ’d to complete and delight me,
    Now on this spot I stand with my robust soul.
  33. ineffable
    defying expression or description
    Old age superbly rising! O welcome, ineffable grace of dying days!
  34. pallid
    lacking in vitality or interest or effectiveness
    If I, you, and the worlds, and all beneath or upon their surfaces, were this
    moment reduced back to a pallid float, it would not avail in the long run,
    We should surely bring up again where we now stand,
    And surely go as much farther, and then farther and farther.
  35. contemptible
    deserving of scorn or disrespect
    Long enough have you dream’d contemptible dreams,
    Now I wash the gum from your eyes,
    You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life.
  36. turbid
    clouded as with sediment
    Of the turbid pool that lies in the autumn forest,
    Of the moon that descends the steeps of the soughing twilight,
    Toss, sparkles of day and dusk—toss on the black stems that decay in the muck
  37. debouch
    pass out or emerge; especially of rivers
    I ascend from the moon, I ascend from the night,
    I perceive that the ghastly glimmer is noonday sunbeams reflected,
    And debouch to the steady and central from the offspring great or small.
  38. multitude
    a large gathering of people
    I am large, I contain multitudes.
  39. barbaric
    without civilizing influences
    I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
    I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
  40. bequeath
    leave or give, especially by will after one's death
    I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
    If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
Created on Wed Jun 28 09:26:40 EDT 2023 (updated Wed Jun 28 13:41:28 EDT 2023)

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