Both Uses of
plummet
in
Leaves of Grass
- I fly those flights of a fluid and swallowing soul,
My course runs below the soundings of plummets.†Chpt 3 *
- After the cycles, poems, singers, plays,
Vaunted Ionia's, India's—Homer, Shakspere—the long, long times'
thick dotted roads, areas,
The shining clusters and the Milky Ways of stars—Nature's pulses reap'd,
All retrospective passions, heroes, war, love, adoration,
All ages' plummets dropt to their utmost depths,
All human lives, throats, wishes, brains—all experiences' utterance;
After the countless songs, or long or short, all tongues, all lands,
Still something not yet told in poesy's voice or print—something lacking,
(Who knows?†Chpt 34
Definitions:
-
(1)
(plummet) fall or decrease suddenly
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Much more rarely, plummet can reference the metal weight of a plumb line. (A plumb line is a cord from which a metal weight is suspended to indicate a straight line downward, or to measure depth.)