Patrolling Barnegat

Structure
• 14 lines of free verse
• Rhyme
- One rhyme throughout, all end words end with “ing”- creates the effect that the
storm is never ending and increases the pace of the poem, creating a sense of
urgency and immediacy as we do not know what will happen
• Rhythm
- Six feet in each line- hexameter- lines sound extra long to our ear
- First part of each line are stressed syllables, followed by one or two unstressed
syllables gives us the effect of the waves going in and out of the shore- surging sea

Language
• Military language
- “patrolling…lashing…cutting…advancing”- reminds us of war and gives the
impression that the storm is intent on causing destruction and nature is our enemy
(he may have felt this way after coming back from the hospital volunteer work in
the civil war he did- very moved by the suffering he saw)
• Present tense
- “sea high running”-sense of immediacy-adds to the drama as the events are being
described to us moment by moment-feel uncertainty of poet
• Crescendo-”gradually getting louder”
- Whole poem is made up of one long, complex list of images and actions- no main
verbs- only present participles- these create a crescendo and make it hard to
breathe when we read the poem- almost as if we are in the storm as well

Sound
• Hexameter lines/ half rhymes
- “Wild, wild the storm, and the sea high running” imitate the long approach and
repeated crash of big waves on the shore
- “That savage trinity warily watching”- feeling of incompletion- just as the account
has broken off with no answer to the “dim, weird forms”- who are they? And what
are they “wearily watching”
• Repetition
- “wild, wild the storm…savage trinity”- gives us extra emphasis to words and
underlines the fact that the waves keep on coming
• Alliteration/assonance
- “piercing and pealing” suggest various sounds of storm- sounds like the whistling
noise of the wind
- “hoarse roar”- assonance/onomatopoeia reminds us of vicious animals- air is full of
noise, as if something wild has been unleashed
• Sibilance (repetition of s sound)
- “slush and sand spirits of snow”- helps to create the sound of the melting snow
hitting the ground

Imagery
• Personification
- The sea is “muttering” and makes “demonic laughter”- again, get the feeling that
the elements (in this case the sea) is a living, violent creature
- “demoniac laughter”- sounds evil and hellish- furthest thing from peace- as the
storm is personified as laughing we feel it is taking pleasure in causing chaos

Themes
• Religious theme
- Whitman had a deeply religious attitude to nature, which shows in his poetry
- “savage trinity” is repeated twice- the opposite of the holy trinity in Christianity-
consists of the wind, sea and night- is as though god has been replaced with this
vicious turmoil
- “demoniac laughter”- sounds evil and hellish- furthest thing from peace- as the
storm is personified as laughing we feel it is taking pleasure in causing chaos
- “Incessant undertone muttering”- this reminds us of religious rituals and reminds us
that this is natural and what God intended. Even though the storm is bad and can
take lives, the water itself contains thousands of creatures, keeping them alive. This
also sounds as if someone is praying- signifying this storm is so dangerous we
should pray for it to stop