had i the choice

“Had I the Choice” by Walt Whitman discusses the speaker’s choice to exchange a writer’s greatest merits to the “undulation of one wave”. He gives various examples of works from William Shakespeare to Homer as well as the intricate characters and the meter or clever wit of the words on the page. The speaker desires to master the rhythmic patterns the waves possess and apply it to their verses. At first glance, it is easy to say that the poem is free verse. The metric patterns are completely different when reading the poem casually, however when read closely it does have a show a meter. It is hard to decipher and figure out because not all feet are the same nor do each line follow the same pattern or rhythm. There are some lines with iambic structure and such as lines one, eight and nine. I think I understand this because even though it does not follow a pattern and it is all over the place, it is kind of like the waves he mentions in the poem. The waves flow in the same motion, yet they do not singularly do the same pattern every time-just line the lines and stanzas in Walt Whitman’s poem. It is also a little ironic because he claims to want to trade any of the great bard’s merits to be like the waves when he is being like them as he writes this poem. It shows that poetry and art can resemble the beauty found in nature and the fact that great poems can have different types of meter and rhythm.