Hours Continuing Long

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1860

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

The Slowness of Time

The first part of the poem, in which the word “hours” appears once in every line (Lines 1-7), puts the emphasis firmly on the passage of time. The poet is in a state of distress throughout these lines, and he is conscious of how time is dragging. As the first line states, “Hours continuing long.” Time appears to pass slowly because Whitman is obsessing on his own misery. As the hours go by, his unhappiness is all that he knows. It seems from the poem that he cannot find anything constructive to occupy his time with—he cannot even sleep—so he broods endlessly, hour after hour after hour. This consciousness of the monotonous passing of hours that turn into “weeks and months” (Line 5) thus becomes a recurring motif. It is as if the poet’s mind is stuck; time trudges wearily on, but he cannot get beyond the endless circulation of his negative feelings: Hours are long when the heart aches.

Mirror

The underlying motif of a mirror dominates the second half of the poem. In Line 5, Whitman fears that his friend has forgotten him; to overcome the pain of this desertion, he wants to convince himself otherwise. He does this with a series of questions; he describes an aspect of his own “anguish” (Line 10) and then asks whether his friend is likewise distressed about the loss of the friendship. In other words, he desperately wants the other man’s emotional experience to mirror his own. If each is a mirror image of the other’s distress, then they must surely possess a kind of unity, almost as if they are joined as reflections of each other. Whitman suggests this in the last line, “Does he see himself reflected in me? In these hours, does he see the face of his hours reflected?” The repetition of the question in almost the same form shows the importance it has for him. It suggests looking in a mirror and seeing the face of the beloved as a counterpart to one’s own. In this final image, Whitman suggests the oneness he longs for: the lover as a mirror image of himself, and himself a mirror image of the lover, suggesting a completeness with no distance between them. Thus, the mirror motif seeks to reverse or cancel the mournful and terrifying separation that the first part of the poem describes.