Acknowledgments
The American MercuryThe BookmanThe CenturyThe CrisisThe Conning Tower: New York WorldFolioHarper’s MagazineLes ContinentsThe MessengerThe NationOpportunityPalmsPoetry: A Magazine of VerseThe Southwestern Christian AdvocateThe Survey GraphicThe World TomorrowVanity Fair
Words in this poem
- bookman n.
- A studious man; a scholar.
- crisis n.
- The point of time when it is to be decided whether any affair or course of action must go on, or be modified or terminate; the decisive moment; the turning point. [L. crisis, Gr. Certain.]
- tomorrow adv.
- On the day after the present day; on the next day; on the morrow. [Prep. to + morrow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Acknowledgments is in the public domain. This text is taken from Color, Project Gutenberg ebook #70543; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Countee Cullen, Acknowledgments, in Color (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70543, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cullen-color/acknowledgments.html, id L01412.
Form and metre
Acknowledgments is 17 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.8 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 100% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -----AB--B-----A- mercury · bookman · century · crisis · world · folioA · magazineB · continents · messenger · nationB · opportunity · palms · verse · advocate · graphic · tomorrowA · fair
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The American Mercury | 8 | ·˘/˘˘/˘˘ |
| The Bookman | 3 | ·/˘ |
| The Century | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| The Crisis | 3 | ·/˘ |
| The Conning Tower: New York World | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Folio | 2 | /˘ |
| Harper’s Magazine | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| Les Continents | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| The Messenger | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| The Nation | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Opportunity | 5 | ·˘/˘˘ |
| Palms | 1 | · |
| Poetry: A Magazine of Verse | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| The Southwestern Christian Advocate | 9 | ··/˘/˘/˘· |
| The Survey Graphic | 5 | ·/·/˘ |
| The World Tomorrow | 5 | ··˘/· |
| Vanity Fair | 4 | /˘˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.