His refusal to
eliminate unpoetic material from his verse has cost him very many readers.
He further concluded that it was unfitting for a democratic poet to be
hampered by the verse forms of the Old World. He discarded rhyme almost
entirely, but he did employ rhythm, which is determined by the tone of the
ideas, not by the number of syllables. This rhythm is often not evident in
a single line, but usually becomes manifest as the thought is developed.
His verse was intended to be read aloud or chanted. He himself says that
his verse construction is "apparently lawless at first perusal, although on
closer examination a certain regularity appears, like the recurrence of
lesser and larger waves on the seashore, rolling in without intermission,
and fitfully rising and falling." There is little doubt that he carried in
his ear the music of the waves and endeavored to make his verse in some
measure conform to that. He says specifically that while he was listening
to the call of a seabird
"... on Paumanok's [Footnote: The Indian name for Long Island.] gray
beach,
With the thousand responsive songs at random,
My own songs awaked from that hour,
And with them the key, the word up from the waves.
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