All 4 Uses of
sibilant
in
Leaves of Grass
- As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life
1
As I ebb'd with the ocean of life,
As I wended the shores I know,
As I walk'd where the ripples continually wash you Paumanok,
Where they rustle up hoarse and sibilant,
Where the fierce old mother endlessly cries for her castaways,
I musing late in the autumn day, gazing off southward,
Held by this electric self out of the pride of which I utter poems,
Was seiz'd by the spirit that trails in the lines underfoot,
The rim, the sediment that stands for all the water and all the land
of the globe.†Chpt 19
- Whispers of Heavenly Death
Whispers of heavenly death murmur'd I hear,
Labial gossip of night, sibilant chorals,
Footsteps gently ascending, mystical breezes wafted soft and low,
Ripples of unseen rivers, tides of a current flowing, forever flowing,
(Or is it the plashing of tears?†Chpt 30
- Flooding with sheeny light the gray beach sand,
The sibilant near sea with vistas far and foam,
And tawny streaks and shades and spreading blue;
O sun of noon refulgent!†Chpt 32
- This face is a dog's snout sniffing for garbage,
Snakes nest in that mouth, I hear the sibilant threat.†Chpt 32 *
Definitions:
-
(1)
(sibilant) characterized by a hissing sound -- as made when pronouncing the letter "s"
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely, sibilant can reference the hissing sound; or a consonant (such as "s") that has a hissing sound.