The Sand-Man
I know a manWith face of tan,But who is ever kind;Whom girls and boysLeaves games and toysEach eventide to find.
When day grows dim,They watch for him,He comes to place his claim;He wears the crownOf Dreaming-town;The sand-man is his name.
When sparkling eyesTroop sleepywiseAnd busy lips grow dumb;When little headsNod toward the beds,We know the sand-man's come.
Words in this poem
- eventide n.
- The time of evening; evening. [AS. æfentid. See Tide.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sand-Man is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Sand-Man, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/the-sand-man.html, id L00803.
Form and metre
The Sand-Man is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABCCB. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.7 syllables. 39% 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 AABCCB manA · tanA · kindB · boysC · toysC · findB
- 2 AABCCB dimA · himA · claimB · crownC · townC · nameB
- 3 AABCCB eyesA · sleepywiseA · dumbB · headsC · bedsC · comeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I know a man | 4 | ···· |
| With face of tan, | 4 | ···· |
| But who is ever kind; | 5 | ···/· |
| Whom girls and boys | 4 | ···· |
| Leaves games and toys | 4 | ···· |
| Each eventide to find. | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| When day grows dim, | 4 | ···· |
| They watch for him, | 4 | ···· |
| He comes to place his claim; | 6 | ······ |
| He wears the crown | 4 | ···· |
| Of Dreaming-town; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The sand-man is his name. | 6 | ······ |
| When sparkling eyes | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Troop sleepywise | 4 | ···· |
| And busy lips grow dumb; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| When little heads | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Nod toward the beds, | 5 | ····· |
| We know the sand-man's come. | 6 | ······ |
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.